


Avengers Assemble

by gateship



Series: Avengers Assemble [15]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Betty totally should have been in the movie too, F/M, Loki's not the bad guy, film rewrite, forget dead jan because that's ridiculous, minor Loki/Sif
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-09-10 18:57:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 44,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8929060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gateship/pseuds/gateship
Summary: Earth's mightiest heroes must come together as a team, as Avengers, to prevent the renegade Asgardian from conquering and enslaving Earth. Can these individuals actually work together or is it too much for Fury to ask?A re-imagining of the film set in my Avengers Assemble Universe.





	1. Prologue: May 29

**Author's Note:**

> I did use an online copy of the screenplay as the base for this, but it wasn't the final version because parts were different and other parts weren't included. So it's a combination of that script, the film, and the fact that I wanted Betty, Jan, and Hank invovled.

Deep in space, on an asteroid that appeared to be on an aimless trajectory, a woman stood. She was a slender woman, pale and blonde, and wearing golden armor overtop of a green dress that clung tightly to her curves. Another stood beside her, a strong and hulking man with gray skin and tattoos in black ink and broad strokes.

“You will take this world, this _Earth_ ,” the Other said. “You will have the use of our forces, our armies, in return for the Tesseract the humans have awoken.”

The Other extended the scepter towards her. The silver blades surrounding the glowing, blue gem gleamed in the light. When she accepted the scepter, the golden handle felt right in her hand. It felt powerful. It made her feel powerful. And with Skurge by her side, Amora would take the Earth – and hopefully her throne and reign as Queen of the silly little realm would come with a Consort that could lead her to the throne she truly had her eye on. Not as the consort herself, as she had once imagined, but instead as the ruler of all. 

 

The Other knelt before the throne of Thanos, the Titan.

“The Tesseract has awakened,” the Other said. “It is on a little world, a human world. They would wield its power. But our ally knows its workings as they never will. She is ready to lead. And our force, the Chitauri, will follow. The world will be hers, as will the prince of Asgard. The universe will be yours. And the humans, what can they do but burn?”


	2. June 11, Part 1

Fury hadn’t enjoyed the call from Coulson about Project Pegasus. When he and Agent Hill arrived at the scene in the middle of New Mexico’s deserts and saw the amount of chaos the evacuation was causing, he had a feeling this was going to be worse than he’d anticipated. Coulson was waiting as they exited the Helicopter that had brought them from the Helicarrier, waiting a safe distance away.

“How bad is it?”

“That’s the problem, sir,” Coulson said. “We don’t know.”

The Tesseract was in the lowest level of the mountain and Coulson led them through it. Inside, the chaos of the evacuation was worse than it appeared on the outside. There were different levels to evacuations in SHIELD protocols, and it seemed this one was pretty far down the list. Everyone was scrambling, trying to take only the necessities. 

“Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago,” Phil said.

“We didn’t authorize Selvig to proceed with the testing phase,” Fury said.

“He wasn’t testing it,” Coulson said. “He wasn’t even in the room. Just a couple of techs monitoring it and Agent Barton were there. According to Selvig it was spontaneous advancement.”

“It just turned itself on?” Hill asked.

“What are the energy levels now?” Fury asked.

“Climbing. When Selvig couldn’t shut it down, we ordered the evacuation. Campus should be cleared out in the next half an hour.”

“Do better,” Fury told him.

“Sir, evacuation may be futile,” Hill pointed out.

“We should just tell them to go back to their dinners then?”

“If we can’t control the Tesseract’s energy, then there may not be a minimum safe distance,” Hill said.

Fury ignored the comment. “I need you to make sure that the Phase 2 prototypes are shipped out.”

“Sir, is that really a priority now?” Hill asked incredulously.

Fury turned to face her. “Until such a time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on. Clear out the tech. Every piece of Phase 2 gets on a truck and gets gone.”

“Yes, sir,” Hill said. She looked at the agents following them. “With me,” she said, and broke off from Coulson and Fury. On the way down someone called for Coulson, so he headed off towards whatever catastrophe was going on there while Fury continued downward.

Down in the Tesseract chamber Selvig was monitoring readouts from the object, which was glowing steadily, more so than it had been the last time Fury had seen it in person. A flare shot out from it, startling a couple of the technicians.

“Talk to me, Doctor. Is there anything we know for certain?”

“Director,” Selvig said, emerging from his computers. “It’s misbehaving.”

“Is that supposed to be funny?”

“No,” Selvig said. “It’s not funny at all. The Tesseract is not only active, it’s…” He paused and shrugged. “It’s misbehaving.”

“How soon until you pull the plug?” Fury asked.

“It’s an energy source. If we turn off the power, it turns it back on. If it reaches the peak levels…”

“We’ve prepared for this, Doctor. Harnessing energy from space.”

“We don’t have the harness. Our calculations are far from complete on the matter,” Selvig said. “Now it’s throwing off interference radiation. Nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation.”

“That can be harmful,” Fury said. If there was gamma radiation involved, then he might have to pull in the two scientists that knew the most about the stuff. He’d prefer not to though. Banner, while a potential threat, wasn’t doing much beyond believing he was off SHIELD’s radar. Ross hadn’t much appreciated Coulson seeking her out less than a month before. He doubted she’d become involved now. “Where’s Barton?”

“The Hawk? Up in his nest, as usual,” Selvig shrugged.

Fury looked up to the catwalk behind them. Sure enough, Barton was lurking up the in shadows watching them. “Agent Barton, report,” he said using his earpiece. The man rappelled down from the catwalk and approached Fury. The two began walking around the room. “I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things.”

“Well, I see better from a distance,” Barton said.

Fury held in a sigh. At least the other man wasn’t climbing through the air ducts, or shooting anyone with Nerf weaponry. And if he had been doing it, at least it wasn’t in the New York base or the Helicarrier.

“Are you seeing anything that might set this thing off?”

Behind them, one of the scientists said, “Doctor, it’s spiking again.”

“No one’s come or gone that might’ve done anything. No contacts, no IMs. If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn’t at this end.”

“At this end?” Fury asked.

“Yeah,” Barton said. “The cube’s a doorway to the other end of space, right? Doors open from both sides.”

Shit. In all of the things he’d considered with Project Pegasus, that hadn’t been one.

Suddenly the facility began thundering and shaking, all of it emanating from the Tesseract. The flaring rings around the cube grew and grew as did the light shining from it until a beam emerged, shooting out until it reached the end of the platform wired to the Tesseract. The beam, which looked similar to when the Bifrost formed a vortex, before opening up a portal that was unmistakably a wormhole. A view of space and billions of stars was momentarily visible before a burst of blue energy filled the room, obscuring everything from vision.

The energy coalesced as it rose to the ceiling of the room. As it did, two figures were revealed on the platform, one a large male figure and the other a smaller female figure. But aliens could be dangers regardless of their stature, especially given that the device was related to Asgardian technology.

The SHIELD guards in the room cautiously approached the platform, weapons at the ready. The two figures rose, one holding a strange, short, curved spear and the other a large, deadly looking axe.

“Sir, ma’am, please put down your weapons!” Fury called.

The woman looked at the spear with a smile Fury really didn’t like before quickly pointing it directly at them. Fury barely registered the blue, exploding light before Barton was tackling him to the ground, barely missing the shot.

At that point, all hell broke loose.

The guards fired upon the two aliens, but the bullets did nothing. The man leapt forward and began attacking those closest to him with the axe while the woman remained on the platform, watching with glee. The guards and agents were quickly taken out and the man paused, seemingly waiting for the next attack.

Barton tried to stand up, but the woman approached him and kept him from using his gun. “You have heart,” she said. She had what sounded like a British or Asgardian accent, but Fury didn’t have any idea what kind of accents meant what beyond planet Earth. The Silver Surfer had had a goddam accent too, though that was some sort of weird American one. He didn’t really have time to ruminate on the accent thing as the woman held her spear up towards Barton. Rather than attacking with it she did something, though Fury couldn’t tell what, but Barton’s eyes went completely black. When they cleared he put his gun away and stood straight.

The three of them seemed to be ignoring Fury. The woman went person to person, finding those in the room who weren’t badly injured or dead by the man’s axe. Fury began making his way towards the Tesseract, trying to ensure its safety. Whoever those two were, letting the cube fall into their hands seemed like a bad idea. A world ending bad idea. Just as he had the Tesseract in a protective case and was moving towards the exit a voice rang out.

“Please don’t,” the woman said. “I still need that.”

Fury turned. “This doesn’t have to get any messier.”

“Of course it does,” she scoffed. “I have come too far for anything else. I am Amora of Asgard, the Enchantress and I am burdened with a glorious purpose.”

“Asgard?” Selvig asked.

“We have no quarrel with your people,” Fury said. Asgardians he had a basic grasp of thanks to Thor, Lady Sif, and the Warriors Three. An Enchantress with magic was a different story. Magic from Earth he didn’t fully get, much less magic from space.

“An ant has no quarrel with a boot,” the Enchantress said.

“You planning to step on us?” Fury asked.

“I come with glad tidings,” the Enchantress said, holding her arms out wide. “Of freedom and liberation.”

“Freedom from what?”

“From your own freedom, of course,” the Enchantress laughed. “Your own freedom and will is the great lie of life. Once you’ve accepted that in your own heart…” In a blink she spun around and placed the spear against Selvig’s heart. His eyes too went black. “Now you will know peace,” she said with a smile.

“Yeah, you say peace but I kind of think you mean the other thing,” Fury said.

From the ceiling and the coalesced Tesseract energy began rapidly building. If it was about to do what he thought, at least the Tesseract wouldn’t be in this woman’s hands.

“Ma’am,” Barton said. “Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow, drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us.”

“He’s right,” Selvig said. “The portal is collapsing in on itself. We’ve got many two minutes before this goes critical.

“Well, then,” the Enchantress said, looking at Barton.

Without hesitating even a second Barton shot. Fury went down as the pain exploded, the case skittering out of his hand. Even as Barton moved to take the case and left with the Enchantress and the other mind controlled people, Fury couldn’t help but think there was some trace of Barton left in there. After all, the asshole was a sniper yet he’d gone for a shoulder shot.

 

As soon as shit began going down with rumbling mountains that could collapse at any moment, Hill began accelerating the evacuation of the Phase 2 materials. This project had been a nightmare from the start and this kind of crap was exactly what she didn’t need right now. The bulk of the materials, equipment, and people were out by the time Barton showed up. Curiously, he had Dr. Selvig and two strangers with him but no Fury or Coulson.

“Need these vehicles,” Barton said, gesturing to a couple of empty jeeps.

“Who’re they?” Hill asked. The two looked suspiciously like they weren’t from Earth, but there was an alien device in the basement associated, at least in part, with Asgard.

“Fury didn’t tell me,” Barton said as the group following him began getting in the jeep.

She was still suspicious, but turned to go oversee the evacuation.

“Hill, do you copy?!” came through her radio. “Barton is…”

Without waiting to hear the rest of Fury’s sentence, Hill turned to shoot at Barton, but he was quicker on the draw than she was. As he shot at her he ducked into the driver’s seat and began driving off. Hill didn’t let that deter her and continued to shoot after them.

“He’s got the Tesseract!” Fury shouted over the radio. “Track it down!”

Hill got into a free jeep and took off after Barton. As she raced after him, other SHIELD vehicles pulled alongside his. The woman stood on the back of the truck and held the spear aloft. Some sort of energy blasts struck the vehicles, causing them to flip over. Hill slowed down somewhat, putting some distance between herself and the freaking energy weapon thing before swerving into a side tunnel that allowed her to pop out alongside Barton’s truck further ahead. She gunned it before pulling the hand break and turning 180 degrees to face him before gunning it in reverse.

Barton, the asshole that he was, reached out the open driver’s side window and began shooting at her.

“Fuck it,” Hill muttered and shot out her windshield before firing at Barton. His truck accelerated closer to hers, causing her to both thank and curse the SHIELD driving courses as she had to evade that and the suddenly falling rocks from the ceiling. Barton, having taken the same training, evade the rocks and rocketed off even as what seemed like a good chunk of the mountain collapsed in the tunnel, trapping her truck.

Hill did some quick damage assessing as the dust settled around her. Nothing major for her, though the jeep was wedged in pretty good and the back end was probably crushed. The air, which had felt charged as soon as they had touched down not 30 minutes earlier, felt calm. Whatever seemed to have been going on with the Tesseract was over. Possibly because Barton still had the fucking thing.

He had better not have done that of his own free will or there would be hell to pay. Romanov would hunt his ass down and kill him at a minimum. Hill winced. She really hoped she wasn’t going to have to make that call to alert Romanov that Barton was compromised.

“Director?” Coulson asked over the radio. “Director Fury, do you copy?”

“The Tesseract is with the hostile force,” Fury said. “I have men down. Hill?”

She climbed out of the truck, having to resort to doing it via the windshield, and said, “A lot of men are still under. I don’t know how many survivors.”

“Sound the general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that brief case,” Fury said.

“Roger that,” she said.

“Coulson, get back to base. This is a Level Seven. As of right now, we are at war.”

“What do we do?” Coulson asked. Fury didn’t answer. There was, however, a ringing through the radio. “Sir? That’s Carolyn.”

Fury sighed heavily. “She’s your wife. You tell her about Barton. Tell her to start looking. And to get Dr. Foster and Lewis somewhere secure and Thor in on this. Maybe he knows who this Enchantress Asgardian is.”

“What about… Agent Romanov?” Hill asked.

Fury paused. “Coulson, inform Agent Romanov that Agent Baton’s been compromised,” he finally said. Hill did _not_ do an internal victory dance. This was neither the time nor the place for it, but dear _God_ was she pleased she didn’t have to make that call.


	3. June 11, Part 2

Phil hadn’t really been pleased to inform his wife that Project Pegasus – something she hadn’t agreed with in the first place – had essentially imploded, Clint was brainwashed, and that the Tesseract was gone. Carolyn had gotten Dr. Foster and Darcy Lewis out of the country and hopefully out of harm’s way, though Carolyn pointed out that neither woman were idiots and would realize the sudden, impromptu request from Tromso and the sudden request for Thor from SHIELD were probably connected.

She had also informed him that _he_ got to make the call to Natasha regardless of his request that she do it instead. Protests that Carolyn was going to have to find a way to reach Natasha anyways got him nowhere but a reminder that he was the director of field operations and a reminder that she had to locate Banner and make a call to Charles Xavier to see if he could find Clint with Cerebro. She was en route to the Helicarrier from the NYC base of operations, meeting them midway on the Helicarrier’s journey bac to the East Coast.

At least he wasn’t going to be telling Natasha in person, even if he did have to tell her she’d be bringing Banner in from Calcutta as well. Once Carolyn had pinpointed Natasha’s location and gotten a contact number, it was time for Phil to arrange an extraction and call Natasha.

“Ya?” the Russian on the other end of the phone line answered.

“Get me Georgi Luchkov,” Phil said.

A moment, and then, “Who the hell is—,”

“You’re at 114 Solenski Plaza, 3rd floor. We have an F22 exactly 8 miles out. Put the woman on the phone or I will blow up the block before you can make the lobby.” He wouldn’t, not with Natasha in the building, but Luchkov didn’t know that and probably wouldn’t figure it out. Phil waited a beat until the breathing over the line changed. “We need you to come in.”

“Are you kidding?” Natasha asked incredulously. “I’m working!”

“This takes precedence.”

“I’m in the middle of an interrogation and this moron is giving me everything.”

Faintly Phil could hear Luchkov say, “I don’t give everything.”

“Look,” Natasha continued. “You can’t pull me out of this right now.”

“Natasha,” Phil said gently. “Barton’s been compromised.”

“Let me put you on hold,” Natasha said after a pause.

Phil waited patiently as he listened to a variety of thuds, manly screams, and what ultimately was just Natasha kicking ass.

“Where’s Barton now?”

“We don’t know,” Phil said. “He’s been mind controlled by Asgardians. Carolyn’s contacting Xavier to see if he can locate them.”

“But Clint’s alive.”

“We think so. I’ll brief you on everything when you get back. Or Carolyn will send you live updates. But first, we need you to talk to the big guy.”

“Coulson, you know that Stark trusts me about as far as he can throw me – when he isn’t in the suit.”

“No, I’ve got Stark. You get the _big_ guy.”

“Боже мой,” Natasha breathed. 

 

“Where’s the Director?” was the first thing Maria asked as soon as she arrived on the bridge of the Helicarrier.

“In with the World Security Council,” Carolyn said. She was seated at one of the many computer terminals that faced the glass walled front of the bridge. “They’re being dicks.”

“You’re spying on the meeting?” Phil asked.

“No, they’re just always dicks. I don’t need to be watching them to know it’s happening,” Carolyn said. “Natasha’s en route to Calcutta to pick up Dr. Banner.”

“Where are we on locating Agent Barton or Dr. Selvig?” Fury asked, striding out onto the bridge.

“Xavier’s currently in Cerebro looking for them that way, but I’ve also begun a program that’s compiling CCTV from around the globe,” Carolyn said. “The footage I was able to retrieve from the Project Pegasus base is being used against it for the Enchantress and that other guy.”

“What support can we call in on this?” Fury asked.

“Thor’s been notified and will be here tomorrow. Phil’s going to see Stark, but beyond that and Dr. Banner…The Fantastics are in Thailand on Johnny and Frankie’s honeymoon. They’re going to try and get out, but they don’t feel comfortable with Sue’s participation considering she’s pregnant.”

“What about the X-Men?”

“Xavier and the junior members are the only ones at the school right now. The senior members are on a secret mission they won’t tell me about, which means they don’t want you knowing about it,” Carolyn said. “And again, they – and I – aren’t comfortable leaving the kids undefended due to Clint’s knowledge of the location.”

Fury frowned. “What else?”

“Looking through other contacts to see what they can tell us and who might come in, but since most of my contacts don’t really like SHIELD, it’s not looking positive. You may need to pull in the initiative, sir,” Carolyn said.

“Contact Dr. Ross,” Fury said. “And Dr. Pym and Van Dyne.”

“That won’t go terribly at all with Stark in the mix,” Carolyn said. “I can almost guarantee that Hank and Jan’ll come. Convincing Dr. Ross will take some more effort but I think I can manage.”

Fury started to head off the bridge.

“Sir? Where are you going?” Maria asked.

“To see Captain America.”

Carolyn waited until Fury was gone to say, “Yeah, I’m sure Steve’s totally gonna want to come do this.”

“Well, you always have to option of asking Stark to come in,” Phil said.

“Nope, that’s all you,” Carolyn said. She paused and pulled something up on the computer monitor, which looked suspiciously like a calendar program that belonged to the CEO of Stark Industries. “No wait, I do want to go. They’re powering up the Tower tonight. Do you have the files the Director wanted Stark to see?”

“Yes and are you sure you don’t want to take this on your own?” Phil asked.

“Nope,” Carolyn said as she stood up from the computer. “Besides, I’ve got to call Jan and Dr. Ross. You can do the talking to my sister’s unfortunate choice of a boyfriend while I work on that.”

 

It wouldn’t have been difficult to find Rogers even without the monitoring SHIELD was doing on the man. In the three months since they’d brought him out of the accidental cryogenic stasis Rogers had been in one of three places 90% of the time – wandering around Brooklyn, in his SHIELD apartment, or in the boxing gym that had been around since before he’d been Captain America.

Fury paused as he reached the doors to the gym, watching through the glass as Rogers beat the shit out the punching bag, tearing it open with the force of his blows. As he headed towards the row of punching bags on the floor, Fury stepped into the building.

“Trouble sleeping?” he asked as Rogers hooked the bag up.

“I slept for seventy years, sir. I think I’ve had my fill,” Rogers said, starting in on the new bag.

“Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world.”

Steve stopped and headed to a bench, unravelling the tape on his hands as he went. “I went under,” he said, sitting down, “the world was at war. I wake up, they say we won. They didn’t say what we lost.”

Fury had hoped that Pott’s “illicit” trip with Rogers to Xavier’s school would help the man out of his own time. The kids there must’ve helped, seeing as he came back from Westchester County a little better. But Fury had thought that talking with Xavier himself might help. The older man was clearly biased about the last seventy years as a member of two minority groups, but he’d seen a lot of the changes over those seventy years firsthand.

“We’ve made some mistakes along the way,” Fury said. “Some very recently.”

“You here with a mission, sir?” Rogers asked.

“I am.”

“Trying to get me back into the world?” Rogers asked.

It’d been three months. Rogers _should_ be back in the world by now. But all he said was, “Trying to save it.” He handed over the file on the Tesseract.

“Hydra’s secret weapon,” Rogers said as he looked it over.

“Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think, that the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That’s something the world sorely needs.”

“Who took it from you?” Rogers asked.

“She calls herself the Enchantress. She’s not from around here. There’s a lot we’ll have to bring you up to speed on if you’re in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know.”

“At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me,” Rogers said. He grabbed his bag and began heading out.

“Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?” Fury asked him.

Rogers paused, but didn’t turn around. “You should have left it in the ocean.”


	4. June 11, Part 3

On the journey to Stark Tower in Manhattan Carolyn made a short call to Dr. Pym and convinced him to come, warning him that Stark was probably going to be involved. A longer call to Dr. Ross proved fruitful as well, especially when Carolyn told her that an agent was attempting to bring Banner in. Ross really hadn’t been pleased with that information, but did ultimately agree to come after promises from Carolyn that Banner wouldn’t be held indefinitely and 100% was allowed to leave after his participation. She’d just finished arranging transportation to the Helicarrier for them – Jan and Pym from New York and Dr. Ross from Virginia – when their car pulled up in front of the Stark Tower.

It wasn’t hard to break into the building between Carolyn’s computer abilities and the tech they’d brought with them. As they headed towards the elevator bank that would take them up, Phil called Stark only to be apologized to and hung up on by JARVIS.

“Did you honestly expect him to answer?” Carolyn asked.

“No, but that’s what Fury’s backdoor entry into JARVIS is for,” Phil said.

“Remind me to tell Stark that exists,” Carolyn said as Phil called him back.

“Stark, we need to talk,” Phil said as soon as Stark’s face appeared on the screen.

“You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message.”

“This is urgent,” Phil said as Carolyn rolled her eyes.

“Then leave it urgently,” Stark said just as the elevator doors opened. “Security breach,” he said, turning to Pepper. “That’s on you.”

“Mr. Stark,” Phil said.

“Phil, Carolyn! Come in, we’re celebrating,” Pepper said.

“Which is why they can’t stay,” Stark said.

“The Arc Reactor’s working fine then?” Carolyn asked.

“Power’s holding steady,” Pepper said.

“Sweet. Does this ridiculous overcompensation mean you’ll be on the East Coast more often than the West?” Carolyn asked.

“What are you doing here?” Stark grumped.

“We need you to look this over,” Phil said, holding out the file of information. “Soon as possible.”

“I don’t like being handed things,” Stark said.

“That’s alright,” Pepper said. “Because I love to be handed things. So let’s trade.” She handed her glass of champagne to Phil and took the file. She passed the file to Stark and took her glass back from Phil. “Thank you.”

“Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday,” Stark said.

“This isn’t a consultation,” Phil said.

“Is this about the Avengers?” Pepper asked. “Which I…I know nothing about.”

“The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn’t even quality,” Tony said.

“I didn’t know that either,” Pepper said.

“Yeah, apparently I’m volatile, self-obsessed, and don’t play well with others,” Tony shrugged.

“That I did know,” Pepper said wryly.

“This isn’t about personality profiles anymore,” Phil said.

“Whatever. Miss Potts, you got a minute?” Stark asked. He headed over to a computer table terminal and Pepper followed.

“It’s aliens,” Carolyn said. “Two super annoying aliens showed up and mind whammied people, including my husband’s asshole of a Best Man. And the Professor can’t find him.”

“Wait,” Phil said as Stark turned to face them. “When did you find that out?”

“That might’ve been the other call I took in the car. And yes, he couldn’t find Clint even with Cerebro. So there’s some magic or telepathy proofing involved in that spear’s mind control,” Carolyn said.

“I’m going to take the jet to DC tonight,” Pepper said as Tony pulled the information from the file up on the holographic interface. Various screens appeared, one of Captain America in action, one of the Hulk on Culver’s campus, Thor fighting the Destroyer, and security footage of the Enchantress and her still unknown ally.

“Tomorrow,” Tony said distractedly as he looked over the display.

“You’ve got homework. You’ve got a lot of homework,” Pepper said.

“Well, what if I didn’t?”

“If you didn’t?”

“Yeah.”

“You mean if you finished?” Pepper asked. Stark nodded and Pepper leaned close. “Well, um…then…” She whispered in his ear and he gasped, his eyes lighting up.

“Oh that’s disgusting,” Carolyn muttered, rolling her eyes heavenward.

“Square deal. It’s the last date,” Stark said.

Pepper kissed him and said, “Work hard.”

 

Bruce found a surprising amount of peace working as a doctor in poverty stricken, low technology areas. It certainly kept him off of SHIELD and General Ross’s radar – perhaps Ross more than SHIELD. Even if he didn’t actually have a medical background, he could help here. While Brazil had been more comfortable, Calcutta made him feel like he was atoning.

A therapist would have a field day with him.

He’d been up all night nearly all night dealing with an outbreak and was currently with a group of patients. There was a commotion behind him and a woman telling someone to leave.

“I have to see the doctor! It’s my father!” a young voice said.

Bruce turned and saw a little girl. “Calm down. What’s wrong?”

“My father…” she said, looking behind him fearfully.

Bruce glanced back, seeing the sick people. “Is he like them?” he asked her.

“Please,” she said, holding out a fistful of money. He nodded and she turned, running out.

Bruce followed her to the edge of town. She stayed ahead of him the whole time, gaining a little as he avoided a local government vehicle. While he wasn’t sure if there were any international notices about finding him, a white man in the middle of the slums of Calcutta was fairly memorable. Once he reached her home and saw her escaping out of a window on the other side of the building he realized he’d been set up.

“You know,” a woman said, emerging from behind a curtain, “for a man who’s supposed to be avoiding stress, you picked a hell of a place to settle.

“Avoiding stress isn’t the secret,” Bruce said. The woman wasn’t with Ross. This was too subtle for that blowhard. She could be SHIELD, but she could also be with a number of other organizations or individuals the Hulk could be … useful to. 

“Then what is it?” she asked. “Yoga?”

“You brought me to the edge of the city, smart,” Bruce said. “I uh, assume the whole place is surrounded?”

“Just you and me,” she said.

Well that had to be a lie. “And your actress buddy, is she a spy too?” he asked. “Do they start that young?”

“I did.”

“Who are you?”

“Natasha Romanov.”

“Are you here to kill me, Miss Romanov?” Bruce asked. “Because that’s not going to work out for everyone.”

“No. No, of course not. I’m here on behalf of SHIELD.”

“SHIELD. How did they find me?” SHIELD then. Definitely not Ross, though it was up in the air if they wanted to hand him over to the man that, at one point, had the potential to become his father-in-law.

“We never lost you, doctor,” Romanov said. “We’ve kept our distance, even helped keep some other interested parties off your scent.”

“Why?”

“Nick Fury seems to trust you. But now I need you to come in.”

“What if I said no?”

“I’ll persuade you.”

“And what if the … Other Guy says no?”

“Three days ago you hit seven months exactly without incident. I don’t think you wanna break that streak.”

“I don’t always get what I want,” Bruce said. So they didn’t know about the incident in the Canadian wilderness then.

“Doctor, we’re facing a potential global catastrophe,” Romanov said.

“Well, those I actively try to avoid.”

“This is the Tesseract,” she said, holding out her phone. There was an image of some sort of blue cube on it. “It has the potential energy to wipe out the planet.”

As he leaned closer to examine it he asked, “What does Fury want me to do? Swallow it?” She was hiding her fear incredibly well, but she was very obviously not moving as he looked at the picture.

“Well, he wants you to find it,” she said as he leaned back. “It’s been taken. It emits a gamma signature that’s too weak for us to trace. There’s no one that knows gamma radiation like you do. If there was, that’s where I’d be.”

That wasn’t actually true. Sure, he’d done what research he could after the incident years ago, but Betty probably knew almost as much as he did. Romanov was lying, but he couldn’t quite tell about what yet. “So Fury isn’t after the monster?”

“Not that he’s told me,” Romanov said.

“And he tells you everything?”

“Talk to Fury,” Romanov said. “He needs you on this.”

“He needs me in a cage?”

“No one’s gonna put you in a—,”

Bruce cut her off, shouting, “Stop lying to me,” and slamming his hands on the table. By the time she’d reached under the table and had her gun pointed at him, he was standing straight, hands clasped in front of him and smiling. “I’m sorry,” he said. “That was mean. I just wanted to see what you’d do. Why don’t we do this the easy way, where you don’t use that, and the Other Guy doesn’t make a mess? Okay?”

The gun wouldn’t do anything but cause him to destroy the surrounding area and probably kill a few people – an outcome he didn’t want. These were good people living here and destroying their homes would do nothing but hurt them.

Romanov didn’t lower the gun immediately. “Stand down. We’re good here,” she said, confirming his suspicions that they were in no way alone on the edge of town.

“Just you and me?” he asked.

 

Thor had not acquiesced to leave the secure California base Dr. Foster was temporarily working out of until she and Darcy Lewis were both gone. As a result, it took nearly four hours for him to actually arrive at the Helicarrier, which was hovering outside of New York City. Absolutely no one was looking forward to explaining to him what had happened.

Rather than addressing the issue on the Helicarrier, which was very expensive, and _in the ocean at the moment_ , they had Thor meet them at the NYC base of operations. Also very expensive, but slightly less expensive than the Helicarrier. And wasn’t in the ocean or flying.

Somehow, Fury had an impromptu call from the World Security Council just moments after Thor arrived, leaving the discussion up to Maria and Phil. Both were highly suspicious of the timing of the call. Neither of them were looking forward to it, but as the Director of Communications and Director of Field Operations respectively, the needs had to be met. Carolyn agreed to be there, but mostly to observe and note take than anything else. Phil was pretty sure his wife just wanted to watch them suffer.

(He was right. But then, she had never approved of the Pegasus Project to start with even before Phase 2 began.)

“Thank you for coming,” Phil said, reaching to shake Thor’s hand.

“Of course,” Thor said. When he sat down at the table he looked even larger than he was. SHIELD conference tables didn’t quite have comfort in mind when it came to seating.  Thor sat patiently, waiting for Phil and Maria to explain why he was there.

“At least one Asgardian arrived on Earth earlier today,” Phil began.

“The Bifrost was not activated,” Thor said. “Heimdall tells me when others arrive on Midgard.”

“No, they didn’t arrive via the Bifrost,” Phil said. “They arrived through other means.” Phil slid the file across the table to Thor. The image on top of the pile of papers was a picture from the security footage showing the Enchantress, her fellow traveler, and the Tesseract just after they arrived.

Thor looked at the picture for a long time. When he looked up, his gaze was angry. “You dare attempt to harness the power of one of the Infinity Stones?”

“Well, that sounds ominous,” Carolyn said. “But the answer is yes. The Red Skull was utilizing the device to power weapons during World War II. After his defeat and the subsequent apparent death of Captain America, Howard Stark found it in the bottom of the ocean. He and many others, Fury included, believe it’s the source of unlimited, free energy that won’t harm the environment or kill our planet.”

“It will destroy your planet,” Thor said firmly. “The Infinity Stones are powers no mortals can comprehend nor touch.”

“Steve did say the Red Skull disintegrated,” Carolyn murmured.

“Captain Rogers told you that?” Phil asked.

“Well, I’m not creepy around him like you are. And it was an offhand comment. I thought it sounded similar to the Bifrost,” Carolyn said.

“The Infinity Stones are objects of great power. When combined, their powers can destroy galaxies,” Thor said. “The fact that Amora and Skurge are involved is even more troubling.”

“So you know them,” Maria said. “The Enchantress said she wants to take over the planet.”

“She has some of our agents under mind control powers thanks to that spear,” Phil said.

“Amora can control the minds of others as can her sister, but I have not seen this spear before. And that is not Skurge’s axe,” Thor said.

“She has a sister?” Carolyn asked in dismay.

“I must speak with Heimdall of how Amora came to travel to Earth like this,” Thor said.

“What can you tell us about her? She has the Tesseract,” Phil said.

Thor frowned and flipped through the pages. “She is a skilled magic user, though my brother Loki is better in many regards. Her skills do include the manipulation and control of minds, though not by any means other than her own gifts. Skurge is devoted to her, though the devotion is not returned in the same manner.”

“What did you mean that it isn’t his axe?” Maria asked.

“Skurge is not of Asgard. He is of Jotuneheim and Skornheim. He gained his reputation through conquest and war due to his dual parentage. His strength and stamina are greater than of all but the very best of Asgardian warriors,” Thor said. “His axe grants him the ability to cut paths into other dimensions and to control fire and ice as projectile weapons.”

“And you said he doesn’t have that,” Carolyn said.

“My father holds it in the vaults of Asgard,” Thor said. He frowned. “It troubles me that they are here on Midgard, especially if the Tesseract was involved. Amora does not have that kind of power.”

“Who would?” Phil asked.

“My father possibly,” Thor said. “But he would not have sent them here with that method. There are others that may have the ability, but I will have to speak with my father and his council.”

“We’re going to need a full tactical report on the two of them,” Maria said. “Anything you know that may affect their motivations regarding their plan for conquering the planet, the Tesseract, or what they’re doing with our people.”

“Amora is powerful as it is, but with the Tesseract she and Skurge are very dangerous,” Thor said. “But their motivations for the Tesseract, I do not know.” He shook his head. “As for your people, that I do not know either. Jane, Darcy, and Erik should be moved to a secure location. I am uncertain if Amora knows of them, but it is better to be safe.” He paused and frowned. “Is that why Jane’s presence was so urgently requested at the university?”

“No,” Phil said just as Carolyn said, “Yes.”

She shrugged when her husband glared at her. “What? I told you he’d figure it out. Jane and Darcy are going to be fine. They’ve been removed from the situation without being aware of it. I have surveillance from SHIELD and outside contractors on them. As for Dr. Selvig he was working on the Tesseract. She took him during the initial incursion. We’re worried about what his knowledge of the Tesseract means for their plans.”

“Dr. Selvig was working on the Tesseract,” Thor said. “He made no such mention. I thought he would know better than to tamper with such dangerous forces.”

“Non-disclosure agreements prohibit discussing matters with individuals who don’t have the security clearance to know,” Phil said. “What else can you tell us about these two? Beyond his strength and her magic.”

“Amora was apprenticed under Karnilla, the Queen of the Norns, until she was banished from Karnilla’s realm. After that point she began to learn other magics. She imagined herself a rival to my brother, though I don’t believe he ever did. She and Skurge are meddlesome and up to schemes, but I cannot imagine what her goal is now. She and Skurge were apprehended and punished by my father quite some time ago. Hence why Skurge is not wielding his true weapon. This may have something to do with her sister’s imprisonment, though the Valkeries, Sif, and my mother were involved in Lorelai’s capture.”

“And what does her sister do?” Carolyn asked, looking like she really didn’t want the answer to that question.

“She enslaves any man who hears the sound of her voice,” Thor said.

“And that’s why we need an alien specific branch of SHIELD. My department should not have to deal with extra-terrestrial mind control. I have enough issues dealing with Earth based mind control issues,” Carolyn said.

“You have mind control on Midgard” Thor asked.

“We have telepaths. And one telepath we know hasn’t been able to locate our people. Which means that there’s some sort of protection against interference on their minds. Or that they’re dead, which we’re hoping isn’t the case,” Phil said. “And you don’t have any ideas about her motivations or reasons for threatening to conquer our planet.”

“I do not. But I will aid you in their capture,” Thor said.

“We’re calling a few more people in as well to assist from both physical and research standpoints,” Phil said. “It’s called the Avengers Initiative.”

“You will need some very strong allies,” Thor said.

“You’d be surprised at the kind of allies we’ve got,” Maria said.

“I must go speak with Heimdall. If I must return to Asgard I will return here as quickly as I am able to. My father and his council will undoubtedly know more, but I may not need to return.”

“Thank you. Any information we could get would be great,” Phil said.

Maria escorted Thor out of the conference room and presumably to somewhere he could safely either shout at the sky or travel via the Bifrost to return to Asgard. Phil sighed.

“That actually didn’t go as badly as I expected it would. You didn’t once mention Phase 2 to him. And he didn’t seem as irate over the Tesseract as I thought he would.”

“Oh, I don’t think he’s grasped the full breadth of what we’re doing with Phase 1, much less the stuff in Phase 2 he doesn’t know about. He is going to be beyond irate,” Carolyn said. “But I’m not going to volunteer that information. I do actually understand what confidentiality means.”

“You told your sister about the Avengers Initiative.”

“Hey, Stark would’ve told her, you know that. Hell, he did tell her. And I’m not outside the parameters of my job description in keeping the Professor and company apprised of the situations that are relevant to them.”

“They’re on the books as outside contractors,” Phil pointed out.

“And they are! Regardless, Steve isn’t going to trust us when he learns about Phase 2. We’re building weapons that utilize the same technology as Hydra. Weapons he fought against during a very traumatic period of time in his life. So I will reinforce the hell out of that point with those who have the clearance about it.”

“Are you heading home or staying here?” Phil asked.

“I will be crashing on the couch in my office. I’ve still got to contact some people and run through the security footage. Jan and Hank’ll be hitting New York in a few hours and he wants to get a jump start on looking things over, so I’ll supervise that.”

“You have to get some sleep,” Phil said.

“And you’re really going to go home and sleep when your best friend is out there at best case brainwashed and up to nefarious purposes and at worst dead?”

Phil sighed. “You talk to Jerri yet?”

“Yeah. After I told Bobbi. She’s in charge of security for Jerri and the kids. I don’t know where they’re going. I told Kate too, and she’s incredibly upset. And she refused to leave the city, so if Clint’s gonna go after people and places he knows, he’s gonna find her.”


	5. June 12, Part 1

He’d been handed a laptop with a folder labeled “Avengers Initiative” already opened. Some of the files were larger than others. The file on Tony Stark he didn’t bother touching at first. He’d already seen enough to understand that Tony Stark didn’t fall too far from the apple tree when it came to Howard Stark’s self-centered obnoxiousness. Howard hadn’t been too terrible during the war, but the information he’d been given about afterwards had showed a different side to the man. Steve was looking over the file on Dr. Banner and his alter ego when the pilot said, “We’re about 40 minutes out from base, sir.”

Coulson stood up from his seat across the Quinjet and walked over.

“So this Dr. Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me?” Steve asked.

“A lot of people were,” Coulson said. “You were the world’s first superhero. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine’s original serum.”

Howard Stark had been the only one to know exactly what was in the Vita Rays that had assisted Erskine’s serum. Steve had looked at the reports on the process, and even though they were heavily redacted, didn’t have anything about technical details. The formula had died with Erskine and the Vita Rays had died with Stark. Regardless, Steve was pretty sure gamma radiation hadn’t been involved.

On the screen the Hulk roared and tore a Jeep apart with his bare hands. “Didn’t really go his way, did it?”

“Not so much,” Coulson said. “When he’s not that thing though, guy’s like a Stephen Hawking.” The confusion must’ve shown on his face as Coulson continued with, “He’s like a smart person.”

Steve made a mental note to ask or look that up.

“You know, it’s really, it’s just a huge honor to have you on board,” Coulson said. Steve had been hoping that in the months since his... awakening, Agent Coulson would have relaxed a little around him. The hero worship had gotten old decades ago. Plus it just felt awkward. 

“Well, I hope I’m the man for the job,” Steve said.

“Oh you are. Absolutely. Uh…We’ve made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input.”

“The uniform?” Steve asked in confusion. “Aren’t the stars and stripes a little…old fashioned?” He certainly felt that way in the current society.

“With everything that’s happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned.”

 

His brother was under the impression that he wasn’t aware of what was going on with the Tesseract. In reality, Loki had been aware of the Midgardians’ research on the Tesseract since the beginning of Dr. Selvig’s involvement. The idea that these mortals thought they could harness the power of one of the Infinity Stones showed their youth and naivety. Loki did not understand at all how his brother could be so enamored with them. The female doctor was perhaps understandable, but with a lifespan of a mayfly compared to them, it would only bring Thor pain.

He had yet to figure out exactly who was behind Amora’s play with the Tesseract. She was clever, but not so clever as to orchestrate this. And she may have known that the Tesseract was an object of great power, but she had no idea that what she had called a “pretty jewel” inside of the spear was one as well.

He kept a wide berth from Amora. It was child’s play to keep his presence hidden from her, but the Stone inside of the spear and the potential of whoever was orchestrating being able to spy through it. He would help the Midgardians resolve this disaster, though more for Thor’s benefit than for the Midgardians.

He would continue to hide from sight – both Amora’s and Heimdall’s – until the moment was right. Until then he would bide his time observing Amora and her mind controlled minions.

 

The Quinjet landed on an airship carrier, something Steve hadn’t been expecting, but he guessed made sense, given that SHIELD was a shadow pseudo military organization. He and Phil walked down the ramp to meet up with Natasha and Carolyn.

“Agent Romanov, Captain Rogers,” Phil said, introducing the two.

“Hi,” Natasha said. She turned to Phil and said, “They need you on the bridge. Face time.”

“See you there,” Phil said before walking off.

“I’m glad you agreed to help,” Carolyn said. “We might need all the help we can get. And what we can get is looking pretty slim.”

“What about,” Steve started, pausing as he looked over at Natasha, “the school?”

“Oh, she knows. Clint does too. Hence why they’re staying at the school in the event someone goes after it,” Carolyn said as they wandered over to the edge of the deck. “The older staff is on a mission so it’s just the younger ones that are there.”

Bruce was over by the edge of the deck, though his wandering was less aimless and more purposefully avoiding contact with anyone.

“Dr. Banner,” Steve said, walking over towards the other man. As he got closer Steve reached out to shake Bruce’s hand.

“Oh, yeah. Hi,” Bruce said. “They told me you’d be coming.”

“You tell him who else will be coming?” Carolyn quietly asked Natasha and got a small nod in response.

“Word is you can find the cube,” Steve said.

“Is that the only word on me?” Bruce asked nervously.

“Only word I care about,” Steve said honestly.

“Must be strange for you, all of this,” Bruce said, gesturing to their surroundings.

“Well, this is actually kind of familiar,” Steve said wryly. “I might never have been on an aircraft carrier before, but the US military’s the US military.”

"Eh, it's not quite the same," Carolyn said. 

“Gentlemen, you may wanna step inside in a minute,” Natasha said. “It’s gonna get a little hard to breathe.” The Helicarrier began to shake.

“Is this thing a submarine?” Steve asked.

“Really? They wanted me in a pressurized metal container?” Bruce asked. He and Steve stepped closer to the edge, only to see it begin to lift off of the surface of the water. Steve was staring in awe while Bruce just smiled morosely. “Oh no, this is much worse.”

“Alright. In we go to meet the rest of the team,” Carolyn said. She and Natasha began to lead the two men inside the Helicarrier and towards the bridge. “If you get lost there are maps on the walls or you can just ask somebody. We’ve also got a full commissary here so you won’t have to worry about food. Or coffee because that's considered legal tender within SHIELD."

"I don't," Bruce began.

"There's plenty of decaf tea in the commissary as well, Dr. Banner," Carolyn continued. "You're probably the only one that's going to drink it though."

“Any sign of Stark yet?” Natasha asked.

“Not yet,” Carolyn said. “And I certainly didn’t hack into JARVIS and find out that he didn’t sleep at all last night and is researching all sorts of things I don’t understand. Pepper’s landed in DC though. She's got meeting's scheduled all day.”

They reached the bridge quickly and Steve’s first impression of it was simply the word “light.” The entire front wall of the bridge was glass and metal struts. The railings that separated the upper level of the bridge from the lower level were open, letting light through.  There was a long platform jutting off of the upper level with steps leading down to a lower level control center. Maria Hill was down at the lower one while Fury was up at the other one. Maria had an array of three computer monitor panels in front of her and Fury had four, but spaced so he could walk forward through them if need be, Steve imagined.

The outer ring of computer terminals in the room faced out and towards the walls, but the other bevy of SHIELD agents at computers were in rings facing towards the two control centers. As he came further into the room he realized there was an additional level still above them filled with additional SHIELD agents on computers. There was a briefing table behind and to the right of Fury’s command center. Janet Van Dyne, Dr. Hank Pym (codenames Wasp and Ant Man according to the briefing materials he'd been given), and Dr. Betty Ross were seated around the table. Agent Phil Coulson was hovering near the table. Natasha and Carolyn headed over in that direction.

“We’re at lock, sir,” Maria said, turning from her spot.

“Good. Let’s vanish,” Fury said. He turned to face Bruce and Steve. “Gentlemen.” He walked over to Bruce and extended a hand to shake. Bruce reluctantly did so.

“Bruce,” Betty said from where she was sitting. Bruce nodded at her hesitantly before turning to face Fury again. 

“Doctor, thank you for coming,” Fury said.

“Thanks for asking me nicely,” Bruce said, causing Betty to eye Fury. “So, uh. How long am I staying?”

“Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you’re in the clear,” Fury said. Betty watched carefully from her spot at the table.

“Where are you with that exactly?” Bruce asked.

Fury turned to face Phil. Carolyn tugged at Natasha’s sleeve, causing her to look away from the security footage still of Clint on the monitor. “We’ll get him back,” Carolyn said quietly.

“Were sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops. If it’s connected to a satellite, it’s ears and eyes for us,” Phil said.

“Also any CCTV, ATMS, all that,” Carolyn said. “I have violated a ton of privacy laws in the process and I feel very uncomfortable about it, but if any of them pass by a camera, we’re going to find them.”

Hank opened his mouth to say something but Jan jabbed an elbow into his side and hissed something inaudible to the others at him.

“That’s still not gonna find them in time,” Natasha said. When Steve glanced over at her she looked resigned, leaning against the table with her arms crossed across her chest.

“Well, if someone listened to my tracking chips idea rather than just ignoring it,” Carolyn said somewhat sarcastically.

“Nobody’s getting tracking devices implanted in them,” Fury said pointedly. “That’s an invasion of privacy.”

“As if what I did with the cameras wasn’t,” Carolyn pointed out. “And if you all listened to me about it we’d know exactly where Clint is. And it's not like I'd give the codes out willy nilly or use them unless it's an emergency. Like when Magneto kidnaps the Professor once a year.”

“No tracking devices,” Fury said.

"Wait, what?" Hank asked. "Magneto kidnaps Xavier annually?"

"It's their weird and creepy dating," Carolyn said. "And 99% of the time he's back in less than a week. It's the 1% that's problematic."

"No tracking devices," Fury repeated. "End of discussion."

“It’s not paranoia if it's justified,” Carolyn muttered.

“Is there any way we can find them faster?” Natasha asked.

“They ditched their cellphones so I can’t track them that way,” Carolyn said. “Telepathy isn’t working to find any of them, much less Amora and Skurge who we know are alive. Barring one of SHIELD’s contacts seeing them, or, I don’t know, Heimdall seeing them and sending Thor back to tell us, that’s all we’ve got until they appear on someone’s camera.”

“You have to narrow the field,” Bruce said. “How many spectrometers do you have access to?”

“How many are there?” Fury asked.

“Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma radiation,” Bruce said.

“We’ll rough a tracking algorithm,” Betty said, interrupting. Bruce looked over at her and nodded.

“We’ll work out a tracking algorithm based on recognition. It’ll mean that we can at least rule out a few places even if we can’t pinpoint exactly where they are. Do you have somewhere we can work out of?” he said.

“Agent Romanov, would you show the doctors to the laboratory?” Fury asked.

Natasha nodded and gestured to the doctors before heading out into the hall. “You’re gonna love it,” she said. “We’ve got all the toys.”

Jan hung back as Bruce, Betty, and Hank followed Natasha off of the bridge. “You know Hank’s not 100% on board with this,” she said.

“He doesn’t want to find the Tesseract and help save the world?” Fury asked.

“Oh no,” Jan said. “He’s totally on board with that. It’s the invasion of privacy and the fact that you were trying to use the Tesseract as a power source that he’s got a problem with.”

Carolyn glanced at Steve who looked like he agreed. “I would’ve figured Hank woulda been yelling by now," she said.

“Oh I told him he could yell after the world was saved. Expect some sniping though,” Jan said. “Now, I’m going to go find the commissary to get scientist fuel. I know Hank hasn’t eaten since last night so I’ll assume the others haven’t either just in case.

"Make sure you get decaf for Dr. Banner!" Carolyn called after her.

After she left Steve spoke up. “The invasion of privacy is a little disconcerting.”

“Yup,” Carolyn said. “Alright, I’m going to head back to the office. I’ll coordinate from there and continue to gather intel. Hopefully Thor will return with more information soon.”

“And Stark?” Fury asked.

“He’s researching stuff that goes way over my head,” Carolyn shrugged. “I think that means he’s on board. Fate of the world's potentially at stake, after all."


	6. June 12, Part 2

There wasn’t much that Jan could do to help with the spectrometer readings. While she had picked up a lot from being around Hank over the years, compared with Betty and Bruce, she was considerably outclassed. She didn’t mind it though. Her talents didn’t lie with science, but rather interpersonal skills and strategy. Well, there was also her fashion design skills, but that wasn’t going to be relevant for the current mission. So, she did what she could to help. Which amounted to feeding and watering the scientists. Banner and Ross weren’t nearly as bad as Hank, though it could’ve been due to the caffeine consumption disparity between the three of them. Hank drank coffee like it was water. Banner didn’t, though that was probably due to the Hulk. Ross had stopped drinking coffee after around 11 AM.

Jan was horribly over qualified to be a scientist babysitter, but part of loving Hank was making sure he didn’t starve to death while he got sucked into work. The first time she’d taken a vacation when she was his assistant had been rather eye opening. And it wasn’t like he was incapable about taking care of himself, he just tended to have concentration issues when he got really into something.

Keeping Drs. Ross and Banner in mind, Jan got enough food to feed all four of them from the comissary on the Helicarrier. She was contemplating how she was going to navigate the somewhat narrow hallways with the two trays when Steve walked into the commissary.

“Captain,” Jan said brightly. “We haven’t been properly introduced.”

“Miss Van Dyne,” Steve said, walking towards her. “It’s nice to meet you, officially, that is.”

“Carolyn’s told me about you. She said you’ve been to the school?”

“She said that was a secret,” Steve sighed. “How many people know about it?”

“Hank went to talk to one of the kids. His mutation involves his IQ,” Jan said. “And it is a secret. If you’ve been there, it means she trusts you. And that the Professor does. Though, since he was a kid during World War II, there may have been some influence from the propaganda films.” She grinned at Steve’s confusion. “They show those in school nowadays when you get to World War II in history class.” 

“You getting lunch for the doctors?” Steve asked clearly in an attempt to change the subject, gesturing at the trays.

“Hank’ll forget he needs to eat and sleep when he gets really wrapped up in research or a project,” Jan said with a laugh.

“Stark was like that,” Steve said. “Couple of times at least when we were in London. You need some help to the lab?”

“Oh, but you were going to get your own food though.”

“Doesn’t mean we can’t all eat together,” Steve said.

Jan watched as Steve got his food and then charmed a cart out of the commissary staff. They loaded the two trays and Steve’s food onto the cart. Steve began pushing it before she could even try to take it.

“So how did you meet up with Dr. Pym?” Steve asked.

“I liked the research and work he was doing so I applied to be his assistant,” Jan said. “I lied about my last name and my parents at first because a lot of people just saw me as a socialite. Eventually he found me out. But I’m used to research mode. He’s forgotten Valentine’s Day every year since we started dating.”

“Every year?”

Jan shrugged. “Pepper and Sue say Tony and Reed get sucked into the same vortex.” As they reached the lab, Jan pushed the door open and announced. “I come bearing food.”

“What?” Hank asked, looking up from his computer in confusion. “I just ate breakfast. Which you forced me to eat.”

“Coffee does not count as breakfast,” Jan said. “And that was at 8. It is now 1:30,” Jan said. “You need to eat.” Hank picked up a folder and moved towards her, clearly intent on multi-tasking while he ate. “Put the papers down. You know what happens when you’re distracted when you eat and papers are nearby.”

Hank reluctantly set the papers down as Betty hid a laugh behind her hand. “You didn’t have to do this, Jan,” she said.

Jan shrugged. “I don’t mind. Not much I can do but Hank watch until the fighting starts.” Hank frowned at that and looked like he was about to say something but she patted him on the arm. “Yes dear, I know I’m smarter than most people think. I, however, do not have a PhD in science. I have a BA in fashion management and a minor in interior design.”

“I thought you had a clothing line,” Betty said.

“It was suggested strongly that I get a business degree of some sort so that I could _run_ the fashion line I wanted,” Jan said. “And the school I went to for business didn’t have a fashion program specifically, just the management and behind the scenes degrees.” She shrugged. “I like interior design too. And there’s some elements that cross over. And the fashion thing’s only a part time gig. There are not enough hours in the day to keep up with Hank and run a fashion house. I have a guest designer position which allows me to do what I want basically when I want. _And_ I designed our costumes. Reed Richards won’t let me touch the Fantastic Four’s because they were “cosmically altered” at the molecular level of the fabric. He doesn’t seem to realize I 100% know how to make more attractive fire retardant materials than what Johnny wears and material that will function for Reed’s stretching. Sue’s invisibility I haven’t quite figured out yet.”

Hank rolled his eyes, clearly used to this type of conversation.

“So you’re Edna Mode,” Steve said. Everyone turned to look at him in varying degrees of surprise. “From _The Incredibles_?” he continued hesitantly.

“You’ve seen _The Incredibles_?” Hank asked.

“Well, I was given a list of things to watch,” Steve said. “Apparently Agent Potts think I should watch all of the superhero movies made in existence.”

“Do not watch the movie version of _The Phantom_ ,” Bruce said. “Terrible adaptation. Who thought casting Billy Zane and Kristy Swanson was a good idea.” He shook his head.

“Too late,” Steve said ruefully.

“Hey, I liked that movie,” Betty said.

“We went to go see it six times in theaters,” Bruce said. “I remember how much you liked it.”

“I like Billy Zane,” Jan said. “He was on _Twin Peaks_. He and Audrey were supposed to get married and have a baby.” She sighed wistfully and then brightened. “Hey, did Carolyn put _Twin Peaks_ on the list? You should definitely watch that. Cultural phenomenon, that was.”

 

Phil and Steve were waiting on the bridge for someone to get a hit – be it via face recognition or the PhDs – when Jan walked onto the bridge. “Got anything?” Phil asked.

Jan shook her head in the negative. “Just more eliminations. They aren’t in Argentina,” she said wryly. “Have you watched Drs. Ross and Banner together?” she asked Phil as she walked over to them.

“Are they not working well together?” Phil asked. “The Director was worried about that.”

“I mean, the first hour was weird. Hank being there seemed to help diffuse the tension – not that he noticed any tension– but they’re working incredibly well together,” Jan said. “Completely in sync. And he’s _flirting_ with her.”

“He’s flirting?” Phil asked.

“Mhmm,” Jan said. “Inwardly seething that you brought her on board no doubt, but fine so far. She’s suspicious of Fury’s claim that you’re just gonna let him go when this is all over. But they were definitely joking about when they were dating.”

“We’ve got a hit,” Sitwell said, drawing the attention of everyone on the bridge. “67% match – wait, cross referencing. 79% match on Amora.”

“Location?” Phil asked.

“Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse,” Sitwell said. He looked at Fury. “She’s not exactly hiding. No sign of Skurge though.”

“Captain,” Fury said. “You’re up.”

“You want me and Hank on this?” Jan asked.

Fury paused. “Dr. Pym should stay on the spectrometers. You go with the Captain and Agent Romanov.”

Phil’s phone buzzed. “There’s a gala at the museum tonight. It’s happening right now,” he read off of it. “Carolyn’s hacking the guest list now to see if anyone there is of importance.” He looked at Steve and Jan. “We’ll get you the info before you touch down.”

Jan and Steve headed off of the bridge and went their separate ways to get changed into their costumes. Though, as Jan changed into hers she mused that Steve probably thought of it as a uniform. She’d designed both hers and Hank’s costumes, treating the fabric and materials with Pym particles to make them stretch and shrink as needed. No matter how many times she told Reed Richards that, he just wouldn’t listen.

Changing didn’t take long, though she didn’t stop by the lab to inform Hank that she was going. He’d just worry and protest that he needed to come with her. But Hank wasn’t big on fighting, and he really was needed in the lab working with the spectrometers. So she bypassed the lab and headed into the Quinjet hangar where Steve and Natasha were already waiting. Steve looked a little surprised when she walked in, but Jan chalked that up to the fact that her costume was a black jumpsuit with golden-yellow piping details and some golden armor like plates as well.

Natasha ran a critical eye over her costume. “Is the back panel new?” she asked as Jan walked into the Quinjet.

“I finally figured out how to get my back covered and still let the wings come out,” Jan said.

“Wait, you actually – those come out of your _body_?” Steve asked. “I thought the wings were part of your costume. How does that even work?”

Jan shrugged. “Pym particles. They’re weird.”

 

Upon reaching Germany Amora had separated from Skurge and the others. Rather than remain with Skurge, Loki followed after Amora. Skurge was powerful, but Amora was the one who thought she was pulling the strings. And Loki was trying to determine what Amora’s – or Thanos’s – master plan was. So far, all he could tell was that Amora needed iridium in order to open a portal to the Chitauri army she had at her beck and call. Beyond Barton and Skurge splitting off to locate the metal required, Loki was still trying to figure out why Amora had split off on her own. Loki’s plan was to follow her, mitigate the damage, and to learn what the larger plans for the Tesseract and Midgard were.

Amora was dressed in a tight gown, something that didn’t surprise Loki in the least. He was wearing a fine suit to blend in with the humans, though his armor was ready and waiting at a moment’s notice. He was keeping an eye on Amora while mingling with the guests below where she gazed down on the crowd from the second level balcony. Loki wasn’t certain precisely who Amora’s target was amongst the crowd of wealthy elite and doctors gathered.

As she began to move down the stairs from her observation position with a purpose Loki too began to move towards the podium. One of the doctors had stepped towards it and the microphone only seconds before. Clearly, he was her target. Before Loki could reach the podium and the mortal, Amora did.  The scepter appeared in her hands and she used it to club a security guard over the head, causing the mortals in the crowd to freeze where they were for a second. In the space of that second she flipped the doctor over onto the nearby table and thrust something into the man’s face. As he started screaming in pain, the crowd started screaming in fear and ran for the exit.

The crush of bodies and mortal panic kept him from moving towards Amora (and towards the danger in their tiny minds) and pushed him towards and out the doors. He lost sight of the other Asgardian in the process and when he found her again the tight Midgardian gown was gone and golden armor was in its place.

(In the back of his mind he questioned how exactly she had gotten her hands on Asgardian smith crafted armor. She certainly hadn’t earned the right to bear it.)

Police cars arrived and Amora used the scepter to blast them, sending a few tumbling end over end, sparking flames and causing even more chaos and fear.

“Kneel before me!” she said, opening her arms wide. Nothing happened until Amora used her magic to cast illusionary versions of herself to surround the crowd. Loki regretted ever teaching her that particular trick. “I said _kneel_ ,” she commanded.

Loki scoffed as he hid himself from view, partly due to her tone of voice and gesturing and partly due to the fact that the mortals actually complied with her demands.

“Now, is this not simpler?” Amora asked the crowd, turning to face the different gathered people. She stared across the mortals with a smug smirk on her face. “You humans, you silly little mortals.”

Loki crept around the crowd towards Amora, taking care not to touch any of the doubles. Though he couldn’t be seen by Amora or the mortals, passing through one of the doubles would alert her that someone was skulking about unseen.

“This is your natural state,” Amora said, moving through the crowd. “Kneeling and bowing down before a greater power. You _crave_ subjugation, it is in your nature.” She reached out and lifted the chin of a frankly terrified looking young man. “I will give you that subjugation you so desire. Before long you will love your new ruler,” she cooed at him. She patted his cheek lightly and made her way back to the open space in front of the cowering mortals. “Your mad scramble for power and individuality is what ruins your potential. Your ephemeral lives, gone so quickly, are what make you meant to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.”

Loki had almost reached Amora then and as he twisted his way to her, one mortal, an older man, rose back to his feet.

“Not to people like you,” the man said in accented English.

“There is no one like me,” Amora laughed, tossing her hair back.

“There are always people like you,” the man said.

“Look to your elder,” Amora told the crowd. “Let him be an example to you all.” She raised the scepter and as it began to glow blue Loki prepared to move in front of the man. Yet something – someone Loki realized a second later – dropped down in front of the man from the sky. A shield absorbed the blast from the scepter and directed it back towards Amora, knocking her flat on her ass and dissolving her doubles in the process.

Captain America stood tall in front of the man. “You know, the last time I was in Germany I saw a man standing above everyone else, he and I ended up disagreeing.”

Amora stood, brushing imaginary dust off of her armor. “The soldier,” she said with a cruel smile. “A man out of time.”

“I’m not the one who’s out of time,” the Captain said.

Loki outright rolled his eyes at that. The Captain had to be better than that. A Quinjet appeared above the crowd, a weapon trained on Amora. “Amora, drop the weapon and stand down,” came from the jet.

Amora sent a blast from the scepter towards the Quinjet but it swerved at the last moment, avoiding the blast. The Captain threw his shield at Amora. She avoided it and the two began to fight. She knocked him down and placed the point of the scepter to his forehead.

“Kneel,” Amora commanded.

“Not today,” Captain America said. He tensed as though prepping to make a move, but something startled Amora into moving off of him.

Well, two things. One was that Loki stepped out of the shadows he had cloaked himself in. The second was that something seemed to shock her. Loki could see the electricity arcing off of her body. Regardless, she stepped back and away from Captain America.

“Loki,” she said, looking visibly startled. “You—,”

She was cut off by some truly atrocious sounding music coming from the jet. Then, a woman appeared out of nowhere behind Amora. Perhaps most surprisingly, she had gossamer thin wings sprouting from her back.

Captain America and the other woman looked up to the sky at the raucous noise. Loki kept his gaze firmly on Amora even as Iron Man flew down and landed near them, training his weapons from the suit on Amora.

“Make your move,” Iron Man said.

Amora set the spear down on the ground and straightened up, putting her hands up in the air. Her armor, but not the Asgardian clothing, disappeared from her body.

“Good move,” Iron Man said.

“Mr. Stark.”

“Captain America,” Iron Man said. “Miss Van Dyne, delightful as always to see you. Your lesser half skulking around here somewhere?”

“Nope,” the woman said brightly. She looked at Loki. “And who might you be?”

“He is Prince Loki of Asgard,” Amora said. “Last seen falling from the Bifrost after the attempted destruction of Jotenheim and subsequently mourned by Asgard.”

Captain America looked at Loki as he moved to secure Amora. “Didn’t you try to kill your brother with a giant robot?”

Loki shrugged. “It was not the first time. And don’t act as though I was mourned by those on Asgard. Or anywhere else in the galaxy. The vast majority of Asgardians care little for me.” He looked up at the sky when it began to thunder. “Ah. Sounds as though my brother will be arriving shortly.”

Miss Van Dyne perked up. “The Bifrost? Hank’s going to be sorry he missed this.”

Loki dearly hoped that Thor was the only one coming to Midgard. While the Warriors Three and Sif would be of assistance in thwarting Amora’s plans, having Sif present would distract him. Sif could handle herself, but she was reckless and rarely thought of her own safety during battle. Thor was much the same, but he seemed impervious to his reckless behavior. The Chitauri army was not one to trifle with, much less Skurge.

Thor landed in a show of fiery lightening. Thankfully Heimdall had the forethought to ensure Thor’s landing wasn’t on any people despite the tightly packed space. His brother landed on three points and slowly straightened, Mjolnir held tightly in his hand. He glared fiercely at Amora, but as soon as he saw Loki his expression turned almost gleeful.

“Brother!”

 

The scepter had been brought on board the Helicarrier before Amora so that it could be secured. Loki and Thor – who was overjoyed at Loki’s presence – kept watch over Amora until SHIELD took her into their custody.

Hank had been waiting at the Quinjet hangar, arms crossed and face cross as well. “I would have appreciated it if you informed me you would be going down there to fight her,” he said as soon as he saw Jan.

“I was fine,” Jan said. “Captain America was there, Black Widow was there. And even if I didn’t know it, Prince Loki and Tony Stark were there.”

Hank huffed and Natasha rolled her eyes before intervening. “I think Fury’s going to want us all on the bridge.”

“I—fine,” Hank sighed. “I’ll go get Drs. Banner and Ross,” He started off but turned to face Jan again. “Don’t think we’re done with this conversation.”

“Why don’t _I_ get the doctors and change into some jeans and _you_ talk with them about how 100% safe I was,” Jan said.

“She was fine,” Tony said with an armored shrug. “Now somebody show me somewhere I can get out of this suit.”

“She zapped Amora with her electricity,” Natasha said.

Hank turned to look incredulously at Jan. “Not helping,” Jan said and shrunk down, flying off.

“Uh, how exactly does she have wings?” Steve asked. “Nobody really explained that one in any of the files on you guys.”

That managed to distract Hank, though it hadn’t been Steve’s intention to do so. By the time they reached the bridge Steve had understood barely anything Hank had said about Pym particles, but the other man seemed to be less stressed regarding his fiancé’s interaction with Amora. Fury was nowhere to be seen, though there was a new computer monitor on the wall behind the briefing table. At the moment, all it showed was an empty office. Jan appeared with the two doctors in tow a few minutes after they sat down.

There was a noise from the monitor on the wall and Carolyn appeared carrying what genuinely appeared to be an entire pot of coffee. “Congrats on the capture of Amora. No congratulations on capturing Clint, because, you know, you didn’t.”

“Do you plan on sleeping at all?” Natasha asked, eyeing the coffee pot.

“Do you think anybody’s sleeping at all?” Carolyn asked.

“Where did they take Amora?” Thor asked.

“They walked her by the lab,” Betty said. “But beyond that I don’t know.”

“We have a brig,” Maria said. Another monitor came to life to show Amora in a large, round glass cell. They watched as Fury revealed that the cell would drop at any time there was force applied to its interior and Amora pointed out that it was clearly meant for the Hulk.

“I want to make it very clear that I think the cell is a bad idea,” Carolyn said. Betty glared at the monitor before looking back at the security footage of Amora and Fury. Bruce was looking at the footage intently as well.

“The mindless beast, the one who pretends he is still a man inside,” Amora said. “You call him to be your ally, yet you create this prison for him? How desperate must you be?” she laughed.

“How desperate am I?” Fury asked. “You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can’t hope to control. You talk about peace and kill because it’s fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did.”

“Ooh,” Amora said and sat down primly on the bench in the cell. She folded her hands in her lap and continued. “It must burn you up inside, to have come so close to seeing what true power is. You had the Tesseract within your grasp yet you knew not what to do with its capabilities. You wish to use its power? For what? A warm light for all you silly little mortals?”

The monitor went black on Amora’s smiling face. Everyone around the briefing table was quiet for a moment.

“She really grows on you, doesn’t she?” Bruce mused.

“Not even remotely,” Thor said.

“Brother, she has been in love with you for centuries,” Loki said.

“Wait, what?” Carolyn asked, looking back to her side of the screen. Thor looked poleaxed by Loki’s comment. “Should I increase the security on Dr. Foster and Miss Lewis? You know what? I’m gonna do it anyways. Give me a minute.” She disappeared briefly and could be heard faintly shouting for Team Rockett, whatever that meant.

“She’s going to drag this out,” Steve said. “So, Thor, Loki, what’s her plan?”

“She has an army called the Chitauri. They’re not of Asgard or any world known. She means to lead them against your people. They will win her the Earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract,” Thor said.

“An army? From outer space?” Steve asked incredulously.

“They are quite unlike anything that you will have encountered,” Loki said. “They are not limited by fear or pain. The only way to stop them if we are unable to prevent the portal’s opening is to destroy each and every one of them.”

“I don’t like an army of aliens,” Carolyn said. “I don’t think my department should have to deal with that. Can I petition a new alien division?”

“So she’s building another portal to bring the alien army here,” Bruce said. “That’s what she needs Erik Selvig for.”

“She did not reveal where this portal would be when I observed her,” Loki said.

“You observed her?” Maria asked sharply.

“I have been watching her since just after she took the Tesseract,” Loki said. “I did not learn as much as I would like, but I was able to ascertain a few key elements of her plan. She, however, is not the mastermind behind this plan.”

“And who would that be?” Maria asked.

“Thanos.”

“The Mad Titan?” Thor asked in alarm.

“I know that name,” Carolyn murmured. “Hold on.” She disappeared from view once again.

“How does she know of Thanos?” Thor asked. 

“Her high school principal dated an alien for a while like thirty years back,” Jan said.

“Aliens have been to Earth before?” Steve asked.

“Aliens have been to Midgard many times,” Thor said. “Even those from beyond the Nine Realms.”

Steve shook his head and sat down at the table. “I wanna know why Amora let us take her. She’s not leading an army from here.”

Everyone looked at Loki expectantly. He looked back at them. “No idea. That part of her plan was never mentioned. I imagine it has something to do with the fact that she and Skurge separated. Skurge went with Agent Barton to obtain the iridium. Beyond that, I know of no specifics.”

“I don’t think we should be focusing on Amora,” Hank said. “Skurge, Barton, and Selvig are still out there. Selvig has the knowledge to create another portal and Barton has knowledge of SHIELD’s assets and enemies.”

“What do they need the iridium for?” Bruce asked.

“It’s a stabilizing agent,” Hank said the same moment as Tony did. Tony walked onto the bridge and towards the assembled group.

“Means the portal won’t close in on itself,” Tony continued. “Also it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as she likes.” Tony turned to face the crew. “Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails.” Then suddenly, “That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn’t notice. But we did.” He stepped towards Fury’s station and covered one eye with his hand, looking first at the left monitors and then the ones on the right. “How does Fury do this?” he asked and turned to face Maria and Phil.

“He turns,” Maria said flatly.

Tony frowned and looked back at the monitors. “Well, that sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component they still need is a power source. Something high energy density, something to kick start the cube.”

“When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?” Maria asked.

“Last night,” Tony said. Hank rolled his eyes. “The packet, Selvig’s notes, the Extraction Theory papers.” He looked at Bruce and Hank. “Am I the only one who did the reading?”

“No,” Hank said. “Some of us just aren’t as obnoxious about it as others are.”

“They need any particular kind of power source?” Steve asked as Jan placed a hand on Hank’s shoulder.

“He needs to heat the cube to 120 million Kelvin,” Betty said. “And that’s just a minimum in order to break through the Colomb barrier.”

“Unless Selvig’s figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect,” Tony said.

“Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet,” Bruce said.

“Finally, someone who speaks English,” Tony said.

“Is that what just happened?” Steve asked.

“Are we operating under the assumption that he needs to get his power source to eleventy billion degrees or that he’s figured out how to negate quantum tunneling?” Jan asked.

“If we operate on the latter, all nuclear reactors will need to be alerted,” Betty said.

“It’s unlikely though,” Hank said.

“More likely than finding a way to heat something to, what was it,” Fury said from the doorway as he looked at Jan, “‘Eleventy billion?’ Hill, get on notifications.”

Tony extended a hand to Bruce. “It’s good to meet you, Dr. Banner. You’re work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.”

Betty and Hank looked horrified, Jan smothered a giggle with her fist, Fury glared, Loki sighed, and Carolyn said, “I knew this was going to be a terrible idea.”

“Thanks,” Bruce said to Tony sheepishly.

“Anyways,” Carolyn said. “Thanos is bad news. Which I figured given his moniker is ‘The Mad Titan.’ Professor doesn’t know much other than the fact that Thanos is someone to be concerned about.”

“He is,” Loki said. “He is powerful and gave Amora the scepter for the Tesseract. Why, I am not certain.”

“It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon,” Steve said.

Phil glanced at his wife on the monitor. She was not looking at her camera at all, instead looking where he knew her secondary computer monitor was located on her desk.

“I don’t know about that,” Fury said. Phil looked away from his wife in time to see Loki roll his eyes. “But it is powered by the cube.”

“No,” Loki said. “It has its own power source.” Thor looked at his brother with narrowed eyes but neither elaborated.

“Regardless, I’d like to know how Amora used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into her personal flying monkeys.”

“Monkeys?” Thor asked, looking away from his brother. “I do not understand.”

“I do!” Steve said with a grin. “I understand that reference.”

“I’ll tell Dr. Foster that you should see it,” Carolyn said to Thor.

“Ooh, did you put _Twin Peaks_ on Steve’s list?” Jan asked. “He wouldn’t tell me if you did.”

Tony rolled his eyes and turned to Bruce. “Shall we play?” He looked over at Hank. “You can come too I guess.”

“I will tell Pepper if you and Hank fight,” Carolyn said.

“You’re a terrible sister-in-law,” Tony said.

“Not your sister-in-law,” Carolyn said.

Tony turned to Betty. “Dr. Ross, lovely to meet you as well. Nice change from academia, isn’t it?” He shivered as he headed for the door. “I can’t understand how you can do that. Hang around bratty teenagers all day.”

“Uh, boss,” Carolyn said as the scientists and Jan headed off the bridge. “Dr. Foster’s calling. Guess her boyfriend landing in Germany wasn’t so subtle.”

“I told you to get rid of that footage,” Fury said.

“I am not a miracle worker. You clearly don’t understand how social media works and you’ve _clearly_ forgotten that the woman is a scientist who, you know, studies Einstein-Rosen bridges. So maybe she found out that way. Also, Darcy definitely knows what YouTube and Twitter are.”

“I want to speak with Jane,” Thor said.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Fury said. “She’s been moved for her safety due to Dr. Selvig’s brainwashing.”

“And I will tell her that,” Thor said.

“I mean, I told you that he’d figure out the protection thing,” Carolyn said. “And that Dr. Foster would and that Darcy would.”

“I’ll set you up with a phone in private,” Phil said.

“From you,” Fury said, looking at Loki, “I want to know what you learned observing Amora and Skurge.”

“Thor, if you’ll follow me,” Phil said. Thor nodded and followed him off the bridge. “The Director will likely want to speak with you regarding what you were able to learn on Asgard about the situation here.”

“My brother may know more given that he observed Amora and Skurge for a full day,” Thor said.

“Well, anything could be helpful,” Phil said. He led Thor into a room with a table, chairs, and a phone. He picked up the phone and said, “Carolyn? Yes, transfer the call.” He then held the phone out to Thor. “It may be a little choppy.”

“Thank you,” Thor said and took the phone. “Jane?”

“There you are! What on Earth is going on?” she asked, sounding flustered. In the background Thor could hear Darcy shouting, “Is that him?”

“Someone from Asgard has come to Earth. She is a threat and SHIELD has requested my help,” Thor said.

“And your brother’s there too?” Jane asked. “The footage Darcy showed me had him in it. And Iron Man. And what that Captain America? Darcy started shouting about cryogenics and conspiracy theories and impersonation.”

“Yes to both,” Thor said. “SHIELD has operatives that have been compromised, including Agent Barton.”

“The archery guy that Darcy thinks is hot?” Jane asked.

“I do not!” Darcy shouted in the background. “Wait. What’s going on with him? He wasn’t in the footage.”

“Yes. And… Dr. Selvig was as well. Amora has them both under thrall,” Thor said.

Jane was quiet for a moment. “Erik’s been working with SHIELD?”

“Yes, on an object of power beyond even Asgardian safe use,” Thor said. “I will ensure his safe return, Jane.”

“Thank you,” Jane said. “But maybe I can help.”

“We have a number of scientists here as well as the man of Iron,” Thor said. “SHIELD moved you and the lady Darcy to the university for your safety. It would… comfort me to know that you are safe.”

Jane sighed. “Alright. You need to let me know you’re alright though. And yell at Fury and Erik about this when you save him.”

“What about Captain America?” Darcy asked, sounding closer to the phone than before.

“Stay safe, Thor,” Jane said. “And please, keep me updated. I don’t like being kept in the dark about things.”

“I will as I am able to call,” Thor said. “I will save Erik and return him to you, I swear it.”

Thor remained where he was after he hung up the phone. There was much of this that unsettled him. His brother’s appearance was helpful, but Thor was sure Loki knew more than he was letting the mortals know. The Tesseract had been placed on Midgard to keep it safe and away from the Gauntlet in Asgard’s vaults. Thor had been young and had paid little attention when his father had taken that trip to Midgard. He wasn’t about to tell Fury or the others or its power or its precise dangers. He would continue to try to dissuade them from using it though.

“Thor,” Loki said. When Thor looked up, his brother stepped from the shadows in the room and sat in one of the other chairs at the table. He waved a hand lazily and a pale green glow spread from his fingers to fill all the cracks and corners in the room. “These mortals have no idea what they are dealing with,” he sighed.

“What else do you know?” Thor asked.

“The scepter is one of the Infinity Stones as well as the Tesseract. Which one, I know not. Amora has yet to realize she had two in her grasp.”

“Thanos _gave_ her one of the Infinity Stones?”

“I believe he wishes to collect all of them, though I cannot imagine why he thought giving her one would assist in his cause. Any number of other weapons would have sufficed,” Loki said. “You must warn the Allfather.” He sighed. “Though Amora did not say so in front of Skurge, but you are most likely part of her deal with Thanos. One that he will no doubt fail to honor.”

“What did you mean when you said that Amora is in love with me?” Thor asked hesitantly.

Thor’s inability to see what was right in front of him sometimes caused the rift that grew between them. It was a factor in Amora’s descent into lawlessness. There were some benefits to it, though they were few and far between. It had led to Loki and Sif’s secret relationship, which was both good and bad.

“Oh, Thor. Amora has believed herself to be in love with you for centuries. Why did you think she hated Sif so?”

“You were with Sif though,” Thor said.

“A fact you did not know until two weeks ago. Everyone save Mother and apparently Hogun believed you would marry the Lady Sif and I would wed Sigyn.”

“Centuries?” Thor asked weakly.

 

Tony excused himself when Pepper called. “Why hello, Miss Potts.”

“What’s this I hear about you harassing Hank?” Pepper asked.

“Who told you that?” Tony asked. “And I’m not harassing the good Doctor Pym.”

“All you ever do is harass Hank,” Pepper said. “That’s why he stopped even responding to requests from Stark Industries five years ago.”

Tony scoffed at that. “How’s DC? When are you coming back? We still need to have that sleepover.”

“DC is not as helpful as I had hoped,” Pepper sighed. “I may head back to New York tomorrow.”

“I like the sound of that,” Tony said.


	7. June 13, Part 1

Betty knew it was 2 AM on the East Coast, her watch and her body clock told her that. But seeing as they were somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, it was still fairly light outside the windows of the lab. It was confusing her brain somewhat, but so far it seemed that only she and Jan had noticed the discrepancy. If the guys had noticed it, they were powering through it pretty well.

Jan was in the corner of the room, lying on top of a table with her head pillowed on top of her arms. Betty wasn’t quite sure when that had happened, but Jan had been 100% awake at midnight. Betty herself was on her fourth cup of coffee since six PM. Tony and Hank were at separate computer monitors, studiously avoiding each other. Bruce was scanning the scepter while she was looking the readings over on a tablet.

“Well, the readings are consistent with Dr. Selvig’s reports on the Tesseract,” she said, looking up from the tablet.

“It’s going to take weeks to process,” Bruce said.

“If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around 600 teraflops,” Tony said.

Betty glanced over at Bruce, who looked like he understood about as little of that sentence as Betty had.

“That sounds illegal,” Hank said.

“Most of what SHIELD does is illegal,” Tony said. “Why not use my technology instead of theirs? Mine’s better. And faster.” He turned to Bruce. “You know, you should come to Stark Tower sometime. Ten floors, all R & D. You’d love it, it’s candy land.”

“Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kind of… broke… Harlem,” Bruce said.

“I’m not sure if that’s an understatement or not,” Betty said. Bruce glanced over at her with a wry grin.

“Well,” Tony said as he walked over to Bruce. “I promise a stress free environment. No tension, no surprises.”

Betty wasn’t watching the two, but was looking down at the tablet when it happened. Bruce yelped and when she looked up Tony was grinning. “Nothing?” he asked.

“Hey!” Steve said from the doorway. Betty glanced over at Hank who was frozen in place.

“You really have got a lid on it, haven’t you? What’s your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?” Betty couldn’t help it and snorted at that one.

“Is everything a joke to you?” Steve asked Tony.

“Funny things are,” Tony said.

“Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn’t funny,” Steve said. “No offense Doctor.”

“No, it’s alright,” Bruce said. “I wouldn’t have come aboard if I couldn’t handle pointy things.”

“You’re tip toeing, big man,” Tony told Bruce. “You need to strut.”

“The Hulk is dangerous,” Hank said. “You shouldn’t purposefully provoke Dr. Banner. He’s who we need.”

“Aren’t you worried about what could happen?” Steve asked, turning to look at Betty. “You’ve seen first hand what the Hulk is capable of.”

She looked at Bruce and then to Steve. “Not as much as you guys. Yes, he can be dangerous, but he’s not mindless like Fury and my father believe. He saved me twice and was consciously aware of it both times. He did destroy Harlem, but we can lay that solely at my father’s feet.”

“And what exactly did Thunderbolt Ross do?” Tony asked with interest.

“Something we can discuss at another time,” Bruce said.

“You need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark,” Steve said.

“You think I’m not?” Tony asked. “Why did Fury call us and why did he do it now rather than before? What isn’t he telling us? I can’t do the equation unless I have all the variables.”

“You think Fury’s hiding something?” Steve asked.

“He’s a spy,” Tony said. “He’s _the_ spy. His secrets have secrets. It may not be bothering Pym, but it’s bothering Banner, too, isn’t it?”

“And you think I’m not concerned?” Hank asked, turning to face the others. He crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t trust Fury at all.”

“Then why are you here?” Steve asked.

“Because I don’t even remotely trust him with this!” Hank said, gesturing to the scepter on the table. “If what Loki and Thor say is true, then Fury was trying to harness powers far beyond his understanding. Far beyond _our_ understanding. I don’t trust SHIELD with this kind of potentially world ending power.” He shook his head. “I’ve read your reports, Captain, about what the Red Skull and Hydra were able to do with the Tesseract. I’m here because I want to protect Earth from this thing here and the Tesseract. It may be Amora and Skurge now, but who’s to say Fury won’t co-opt it for the ‘greater good?’”

“Is it bothering you?” Steve asked Bruce and Betty.

“I’m here because gamma radiation is dangerous. And I thought if I was here they wouldn’t need to look for Bruce. Now it’s to figure this out and keep SHIELD to their promise about letting Bruce go.”

Steve looked at Bruce. “Uh… I just want to finish my work here and…” He trailed off.

“Doctor?” Steve prompted.

“‘A warm light,’” Bruce quoted. “Amora’s jab at Fury.”

“I heard it,” Steve said.

Bruce pointed at Tony. “Well, I think that was meant for you. Your tower’s all over the news.”

“The Stark Tower?” Steve asked. “That big ugly… building in Manhattan?”

“It’s powered by Stark reactors,” Bruce said. “A self-sustaining power source. That building will run itself for what, a year?” he asked Tony.

“And that’s just the prototype,” Tony said with pride. “I’m kind of the only name in clean energy right now,” he said to Steve.

“What about Elon Musk?” Betty asked.

Tony rolled his eyes so hard Betty thought they’d roll out of his head. “ _I_ could design a better electric car,” he said.

“Then why don’t you?” Hank asked.

Tony frowned. “Pepper won’t let me,” he said. “Since she’s the CEO now Stark Industries is focusing on one clean energy project at a time. And right now it’s buildings.”

“So why didn’t SHIELD bring you in on the project from the get go?” Bruce asked. “I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?”

“I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD’s secure files.”

“I’m sorry, did you say…” Steve said.

“And now we’re back to illegal activities,” Hank sighed.

“You _just_ said you don’t trust Fury,” Tony said. “JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, we’ll know every dirty little secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide.” He pulled a bag out of somewhere and offered it to Bruce. “Blueberry?”

“Yet you’re confused about why they didn’t want you around,” Steve said.

“An intelligence organization that fears intelligence?” Tony scoffed. “Historically, not possible.”

“I think Amora’s trying to wind us up,” Steve said. “This is a woman who wants to start a war, and if we don’t stay focused, she’s going to succeed. We have orders, we should follow them.”

“Following is not really my style,” Tony said.

“And you’re all about style, aren’t you?” Steve asked with a tight smile.

“Of the people in this room, which one is A.) wearing a spangly outfit and B.) not of use,” Tony said with a narrow-eyed gaze.

“Me,” Jan said from her corner sleeping table. Everyone looked over at her. “I am both wearing a spangly outfit and not useful. Hank also has a spangly outfit with a truly ridiculous looking helmet, but he’s useful. And you have a full body metal suit. I’m debating on your usefulness.”

“Steve,” Bruce said. “Tell me none of this smells a little funky to you.”

Steve paused but tightened his jaw. “Just find the cube.” He turned and left the lab.

“That’s the guy my dad never shut up about?” Tony scoffed. “Wondering if they shouldn’t have kept him on ice.”

“It’s a generational issue,” Jan said, still having not moved from her curled up position. “And he missed a ton of stuff which caused us to question authority. And you do not hide your daddy issues very well.”

“Anyways,” Bruce said, “he’s not wrong about Amora. She does have the jump on us.”

“What she has is an ACME dynamite kit,” Tony said. “It’s going to blow up in her face, and I’m going to be there when it does.”

“Who declared you the roadrunner?” Jan muttered.

“And I’ll read all about it,” Bruce said.

“As will I,” Betty said. “From my house in Virginia. Where I’m hoping to drag Bruce to.”

“Doesn’t your boyfriend live with you?” Bruce asked.

“I’m sorry, do you really think I didn’t break up with him after you revealed that you weren’t actually dead?”

“Or,” Tony said to Bruce. “You’ll be suiting up with the rest of us.”

“Ah, see. I don’t get a suit of armor. I’m exposed, like a nerve,” Bruce said. He glanced at Betty and then away again. “It’s a nightmare.”

Jan sighed and pushed herself up and off the table. “If y’all are gonna keep talking about this rather than the actual potential global catastrophe and apocalypse going on right now, I’m going to get more coffee.”

“I’ll come too,” Betty said. As she passed by Bruce she took his fingers in hers and squeezed them.

Hank huffed and said, “I need some air. We’re not getting anywhere.”

After everyone else cleared out of the lab, Tony turned back towards Bruce. “You know, I’ve got a cluster of shrapnel trying every second to crawl its way into my heart,” he said, tapping the miniature arc reactor glowing through his shirt. “This stops it. This little circle of light. It’s part of me now, not just armor.”

“But you can control it,” Bruce said.

“Because I learned how,” Tony said firmly.

“It’s different,” Bruce said, shaking his head. He moved towards the holo computer terminal Hank had been working on. Tony followed and went to the other side of the counter. He slid the data off of the screen, leaving Bruce looking at him.

“Hey, I’ve read all about your accident,” Tony said. “That much gamma exposure should have killed you.”

“So you’re saying the Hulk… the other guy saved my life? That’s nice. It’s a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?”

“To save your girlfriend maybe?”

“She was in danger as a direct result of the other guy.”

“Well, then I guess we’ll find out what he saved you for.”

 

While Steve wanted to believe that Fury wasn’t up to anything, his instincts told him that something was wrong. He didn’t feel good about sneaking into sections of the Helicarrier that were clearly off limits and required security clearance, but something felt off.

He stared at the door to Secure Storage 10-C for a few seconds before sliding the heavy iron door and walking in. He shut the door behind him and surveyed the warehouse like room. Metal crates were stacked high and when he looked to see how far up they went he saw a second level to the room. He did some quick calculations and leapt up, grabbing on to the catwalk’s railing before pulling himself up and over it onto it.

He continued forward, keeping his eyes open.


	8. June 13, Part 2

Hank had taken a nap at Jan’s insistence, but neither Bruce nor Tony had. Betty had managed to sneak one in as well, though it wasn’t very helpful. She still felt groggy and in desperate need of a full 8 hours. It had been a long night, but they seemed to be fine. One the coffee run Jan had mentioned that Pepper Potts said that Tony’s energy levels when working was pretty standard. They hadn’t seen anyone else since Steve had dropped by the lab hours earlier.

They eventually managed to lock a model for the computers to search the spectrometer data for. Eventually it would get a hit. Betty was just about to try and convince Bruce to get some sleep when Fury walked into the lab.

“What are you doing, Mr. Stark?” Fury demanded.

“Uh… Kind of been wondering the same thing about you,” Tony said.

“You’re supposed to be locating the Tesseract,” Fury said.

“We are,” Bruce said.

“The model’s been locked,” Betty said through a yawn. “We’re currently sweeping the spectrometers you got us linked to.”

“When we get a hit, we’ll have a location within a half mile,” Hank said.

“And you’ll get your cube back,” Tony said. “No muss, no fuss.” Suddenly, on the monitor behind Tony a barrage of files appeared. “Ah, what is Phase 2?”

Steve barged into the room and dropped a weapon onto the table. Fury, Bruce, and Tony turned to look. Steve looked furious.

“Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons,” he said. He looked at Tony. “Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow.”

“Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we’re…” Fury tried to explain.

“I’m sorry, Nick,” Tony said. He turned the computer screen towards Fury, which showed plans and blueprints for a variety of weapons. “What, were you lying?”

“I was wrong, Director. The world hasn’t changed a bit,” Steve said.

Thor, Loki, and Natasha walked into the lab. Natasha kept her eyes on Bruce.

“Did you know about this?” Bruce asked Natasha.

“I did,” Loki said. “I have observed your Tesseract research since you brought Dr. Selvig in. You do not have any idea what you are playing with, Director.”

“You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?” Natasha asked, ignoring Loki even as Fury looked at the prince. 

“I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed,” Bruce said.

“Amora’s manipulating you,” Natasha said.

“And you’ve been doing what exactly?” Bruce asked.

“You didn’t come here because I batted my eyelashes at you,” Natasha said. Betty rolled her eyes at that comment.

“Yes, and I’m not leaving because you get a little twitchy,” Bruce said.

“Why don’t we all take a moment to pause and calm down,” Jan said.

“I’d like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction,” Bruce said, ignoring Jan.

“I would too,” Hank said. “I knew it was going to come to this.” He shook his head in disgust and annoyance.

“Because of them,” Fury said, pointing to Loki and Thor.

“Me?” Thor asked, seemingly stunned. Loki looked entirely unsurprised by Fury’s statement.

“Last year Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match,” Fury said, looking pointedly at Loki. “It levelled a small town.”

“Not quite,” Loki interjected. “The town’s still there. And inhabited. I checked.”

“I don’t think you’re helping,” Jan said slowly.

“And I distinctly remember the planet nearly getting quite literally _eaten_ two years ago,” Tony said. “Pretty sure that and the surfer dude posed bigger threats than Thor.”

“That was Galactus,” Fury said.

“Galactus visited your world?” Thor asked. “He took a messenger, then.”

“Actually he blew up,” Natasha said.

Loki looked surprised at that. “You defeated Galactus?”

“The Fantastic Four defeated Galactus with help from the Silver Surfer,” Jan said.

“And because of that we learned that not only are we not alone in the universe, but we are hopelessly, hilariously outgunned,” Fury said.

“My people, most people, want nothing but peace with your planet,” Thor said.

“But you’re not the only ones out there, are you? Galactus wanted to eat us” Fury said. “And, you’re not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can’t be matched, they can’t be controlled.”

“Like you controlled the cube,” Steve said.

“Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Amora to it, and her allies,” Thor said.

“You cannot begin to comprehend the danger you have put your planet into by meddling with forces beyond your knowledge,” Loki said. “It is a signal to all of the realms – and know there are far more than the Nine linked through the Bifrost – that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war.”

“A higher form?” Steve asked.

“Galactus is not the only being capable of destroying planets on his own,” Loki said. “There are objects capable as well.”

“You forced our hand. We had to come up with something,” Fury said. “It may be beyond our knowledge, but it’s not beyond yours.”

“Our father placed the Tesseract on Earth,” Thor said. “He knows not to use its power.”

“No mortal may touch one of the Infinity Stones and survive,” Loki said. “No Asgardian, no Kree, no Skrull, nor the Elders of the Universe.”

“There’s more of them?” Hank asked while Tony snorted, presumably at the “Elders of the Universe” comment.

“Infinity Stones hold immeasurable power but they also hold immeasurable danger,” Loki said. “Creating weapons out of them is asinine.”

“You forced our hand,” Fury repeated.

“Nuclear deterrent always works,” Tony said sarcastically. “Calms everything right down.”

“Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?” Fury asked.

Tony’s jaw clenched and then he and Steve began talking over one another, and then Thor and Loki, then Hank, and Betty and Bruce and Natasha and Fury started in. Jan watched them arguing over power, the Tesseract, how evolved humans may or may not be, SHIELD’s shady practices, and more.

_SOS. Stark found out about the weapons. So did Steve. Everyone’s pissed._

The response from Carolyn was almost instant.

_I did not know about Stark’s bug. At all. You need to get them to calm down. If Banner goes off, it’s going to be bad._

“You speak of control, yet you court chaos,” Thor said above the noise.

Jan looked up as Bruce said, “It’s his MO, isn’t it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We’re a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We’re… We’re a time bomb.”

“Guys,” Jan said, eyeing Bruce and the now glowing jewel on the scepter. If that thing had an Infinity Stone in it (as she was realizing was probably the case), glowing was probably a bad thing. A glowing Tesseract had led to all of this after all.

Nobody listened to her.

“You need to step away,” Fury said to Bruce.

Tony put his arm around Steve. “Why shouldn’t the guy let off a little steam?”

Steve shoved Tony’s arm off of him. “You know damn well why! Back off!”

“Guys,” Jan tried again with no success.

“Oh, I’m starting to want you to make me,” Tony said to Steve.

“Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?” Steve asked threateningly.

“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist,” Tony listed off.

“I know guys with none of that worth ten of you,” Steve said. “Yeah, I’ve seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You’re not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you.”

“Hey!” Jan said.

“I think I would just cut the wire,” Tony said.

“Always a way out,” Steve said with a sarcastic smile. “You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero.”

“A hero?” Tony scoffed. “Like you? You’re a lab rat, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle!”

“You people are so petty,” Thor said. “And tiny.”

“Hey!” Jan said again. “All of you shut the hell up!”

Everyone in the room turned to look at her. “Bruce, could you please put down the scepter that started glowing when everyone started bitching and screaming at each other?”

Bruce looked down and looked surprised to see the scepter in his hand. Fury and Natasha had their hands ready to grab their guns. The computer beeped behind them. Bruce put the scepter down gently on the table.

“Why is it glowing?” Betty asked.

Loki exchanged a glance with Thor. “I believe I have determined which of the Infinity Stones that is,” he said.

“That’s like the Tesseract for real then?” Jan asked. “I mean, I figured, but that’s not terrifying or anything.”

“They are not meant to be near one another,” Loki said. “Having two in such close proximity will cause problems. Amora does not know that she had both within her grasp.”

“You got a location on the Tesseract?” Hank asked Bruce.

“I can get there faster,” Tony said.

“Look, all of us,” Steve began.

“The Tesseract belongs on Asgard,” Thor said. “No human is a match for it.”

“You just said what amounts to ‘no Asgardian is a match for it,’” Hank said.

Tony turned towards the door but Steve stopped him. “You’re not going alone!”

“You gonna stop me?” Tony asked.

“Christ almighty!” Jan said. “Everyone’s going. End of story. Once the Tesseract has been grabbed we can discuss who gets dibs. Alright? Act like grown ups instead of toddlers – and yes aliens that includes—.”

She was cut off as an explosion rocked the ship and tore a hole in the room. Jan was thrown across the room and when she was able to push herself up she looked first for Hank. He’d been tossed all the way on the other side of the room from her where Fury, Steve, and Tony were. Bruce and Natasha were nowhere to be seen.

“Put on the suit!” Steve shouted at Tony, helping the other man up.

Hank and Jan exchanged a glance and with a sharp nod Jan shrunk down and flew down the hole.

“Bruce?” she heard Betty call.

Down on the lower floor Jan found wreckage and both Natasha and Bruce. Bruce looked terrifying, slightly glowing green eyes and hard breathing.

“I’m okay,” Natasha said into her earpiece. Then quieter as she looked at Bruce. “We’re okay, right?” She began trying to pull herself free of the debris pinning her down.

“I got you,” Jan said, and started helping. Though she might not have the full extent of the strength Hank did when he shrunk, she did have a larger proportion of strength than she should. She also reached spots Natasha couldn’t get to.

Two SHIELD agents appeared around a corner of the conduits and Natasha waved them off frantically. They paused for a second but then headed away.

“Doctor… Bruce, you gotta fight it,” Natasha said. “This is just want Amora wants.” Jan glanced over at Bruce. He looked like he was getting worse. “I swear on my life I will get you out of this, you will walk away, and never—,”

“Your life?” Bruce interrupted. Natasha and Jan began trying to unpin her faster at the tone and another explosion rocked the carrier.

“Bruce,” Natasha pleaded as he very clearly began transforming. She scrambled free of the rubble and darted for the stairs. “Go!” she shouted at Jan.

“Not leaving you!” Jan shouted back and zipped after the Black Widow. “I’m quite literally a fly to him!”

The Hulk – undeniably no longer Bruce – chased after them.

 

Fury ran onto the bridge. “Bring the carrier inwards and head south. Take us to the water.”

“Why water? Navigations recalibrated after the engine failure,” one of the helmsman said, clearly panicking.

“Is the sun coming up?” Fury demanded.

“Yes, sir,” the helmsman said, confused.

“Then put it on the left! Get us over water! One more turbine goes down and we drop!” Fury said. “Somebody get me Potts!”

 

Intellectually Hank knew Jan was perfectly capable of taking care of herself even without her ability to shrink and shock people. But knowing that the mild-mannered Dr. Banner was possibly going to turn into the Hulk and his fiancé was down there was a different matter. Still, he had a responsibility and a duty to fulfill. And part of that duty involved ensuring that Dr. Ross didn’t become a casualty of the explosion.

He had her up and off the floor before she seemed to realize what was going on. But as he started pulling her out of the destroyed lab she did. “Bruce?” she called. “Let me go, I need to get to Bruce.”

“I’m sorry, Dr. Ross, but I need to get you to safety,” Hank said. He desperately wished he had his helmet even if there probably weren’t any bugs on board the Helicarrier. He didn’t need it if he was wearing the suit (which he was), but it was comforting to have it. He had backup regardless of where he was. Except maybe this time.

He wasn’t quite sure how useful he was going to be as Ant Man or Giant Man on the ship considering the explosion, but Dr. Hank Pym could be useful. There was undoubtedly damage to the ship and between him and Stark, it could be fixed.

Hopefully.

“I need to make sure Bruce doesn’t hurt anyone,” Betty said. “Trust me, I can get him to calm down.”

“I’m sorry,” Hank said. “Hey! Hey you,” he said to a passing SHIELD agent. “Get her to safety. I need to get to the bridge to figure out what damage was done.”

He wasn’t sure if it was a bad sign or not that the SHIELD agent took him at his word and started escorting Dr. Ross away despite her protests. He wasn’t even remotely allowed access to SHIELD’s systems, but that wasn’t going to stop him.

 

Steve had headed for the turbine that had exploded as soon as Stark headed off to get his suit. When he reached the turbine he saw exactly how much damage had been done in the attack. The engine was missing a huge chunk from it and didn’t look like it was going to move any time soon. Hopefully he and Stark could fix this while Jan and Romanov kept Banner from becoming the Hulk.

“Stark, I’m here!” he said over comms.

“Good. See what we got,” Stark said. He flew into view and seemed to be surveying the damage. “I gotta get this super conducting cooling system back online before I can access the rotors and work on dislodging the debris.” Stark began pulling at the stuck rotors of the engine. “I need you to get to that engine control panel,” he said, “and tell me which relays are in overload position.”

Stark flew into what Steve assumed were the giant cooling conductors. Steve looked across the catwalk to where the control panel was located. The jump wasn’t nearly as hard as the last catwalk jump he’d made considering there wasn’t any fire underneath of him, just open air. He yanked the panel open and stared for a second at the jumbled mass of wiring.

“What’s it look like in there?” Stark asked over comms.

“It seems to run on some sort of electricity,” Steve said sarcastically.

“Well, you’re not wrong.”

 

Jan was helping to direct Natasha in the small crawl space under the catwalk in order to try and hide from the Hulk. Being so small, Jan was able to scout ahead and dart back to keep track of the Hulk and urge Natasha on.

As the room began vibrating Natasha pulled herself out from under the catwalk and pulled out her gun. She walked up onto the catwalk and waited.

“What are you doing?” Jan hissed at her from somewhere in the vicinity of her head.

There was a roar and Natasha spun to fire, but not at the Hulk. A pipe burst, shooting out liquid nitrogen directly into the Hulk’s face. The Hulk reacted, smashing the pipe, giving Natasha time to run through the maze of corridors that made up the underbelly of the Helicarrier. Somehow she managed to lose Jan, but not the Hulk. She reached a long hallway and booked it down towards the other end. The Hulk reached her first, smashing her first into the wall and then into the ground.

She looked up towards the Hulk’s angry visage and fear turned her veins to ice. The Hulk raised his hand and she couldn’t even begin to try and brace herself for the death that was no doubt coming.

Then, out of absolutely nowhere, the Hulk was knocked off his feet and tackled into the next room by what looked like Thor. Natasha stared where the Hulk had been in stunned paralysis.


	9. June 13, Part 3

Thor had gone for Banner as soon as he was able, Loki vanishing presumably to ensure Amora’s continued imprisonment. This attack was no doubt part of her plan to conquer the Earth. And considering Dr. Banner had disappeared through the floor and was possibly injured, it was best for an Asgardian to subdue the Hulk.

Thor found the Hulk just as the beast was about to attack and kill the Black Widow. He surged forward, flying into the Hulk and bursting through a wall. The two rolled across the floor of the room. He stood, observing the Hulk as he saw through his peripheral vision all the SHIELD agents on the flight deck run out and away from the confrontation.

The Hulk lunged for Thor and missed. Thor did not and nearly knocked the Hulk off of his feet with the first blow. The Hulk kept lunging and swinging for Thor, but Thor had fought many types of creatures over the centuries with different levels of battle prowess and agility. Finally Thor grabbed one of the Hulk’s arms to hold him down.

“We are not your enemies, Banner! Try to think!” Thor pleaded.

The Hulk lifted his arm up, much to Thor’s surprise. With his other arm, he punched Thor straight in the face and sent the prince of Asgard flying across the hangar.

 

Stark began blasting at the broken debris that was blocking the turbine engine. Steve examined the electrical panel, trying to suss out what exactly was what inside. He might not understand precisely how the blasted smart phones worked in this day and age, but he did understand electrical wiring. Being sick so often when he was younger meant he learned a lot of odd things from his neighbors who’d taken pity on the single mother with a very sick child. Electrician work he’d learned from Bucky’s dad though. And while a lot of that had changed over the past seven decades, the basics were still the basics.

Even if what he knew the most about was the defunct knob and tube system.

“This looks worse than it is,” Stark said. “It’s fixable.”

“The relays are intact,” Steve said. “What’s our next move?”

“Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won’t re-engage without a jump. I’m gonna have to get in there and push,” Stark said.

“Well if that thing gets up to speed, you’ll get shredded!”

“Then stay in control unit and reverse polarity long enough to disengage magnetic,” Stark started, sounding irritated.

“Speak English!” Steve interrupted.

“See that red lever?” Stark asked. The lever was over on the other side of the catwalk where he had originally come from. “It’ll slow down the rotors long enough for me to get out. Stand by it and wait for my word.”

Steve jumped across. He was getting really tired of all of the jumping he’d been doing lately.

 

Thor crashed into a stack of crates on the floor of the flight hangar. He lifted his head and swiped some blood off of his lip. Perhaps the Hulk was an adequate adversary after all. The Hulk roared, but Thor extended his hand, calling for Mjolnir. The Hulk roared again, this time closer.

The Hulk ran right towards him, but Mjolnir flew into Thor’s hand and he immediately slammed it into the Hulk’s jaw. The Hulk went flying and landed on one of the fighter jets. The Hulk stood up slowly, shaking his head and angrily ripped off the tail of the jet and hurled it at Thor.

Thor ducked and slid under the giant piece of metal before jumping back up and throwing Mjolnir at the Hulk. The Hulk went flying, head over heels. When he landed Mjolnir was upright on the decking. The Hulk grasped it with one massive hand and tried to lift it. Obviously it did not move, but something happened Thor had never seen before. The flooring around Mjolnir began to buckle, bending as the Hulk pulled. Perhaps it was because they were in the air rather than on solid ground. But…perhaps…not…

The Hulk screamed in rage and Thor ran at him, jumping up and kneeing him in the face before grabbing Mjolnir. With the Hulk down, Thor used Mjolnir as one point in the chokehold just to try and knock him unconscious. Perhaps if the Hulk wasn’t conscious, then Banner would return. Thor wasn’t quite sure how the process of becoming the Hulk worked, but he would try to return the scientist to himself.

 

On the bridge of the Helicarrier one of Fury’s monitors showed the interior of the ship and the other showed an increasingly frustrated looking Agent Carolyn Potts.

“I am not a miracle worker!” she said. “And I’m going to kill Clint when he’s debrainwashed. He purposefully messed the carrier up enough to cause me some serious problems. And might I remind you that you did not want anyone to have remote access to the ship? He knows that!”

“Director Fury,” Dr. Pym said from the entrance to the bridge as he walked in. “Let me see what I can do.”

“Yes please,” Carolyn said. “I’ve had to hack into the goddam thing because of his paranoia.”

“Don’t you always say it isn’t paranoia if it’s justified?” Hank asked as he slid behind one of the empty computer terminals.

“Don’t use my words against me,” Carolyn said.

Fury glared at Carolyn before turning to Hill. “We need a full evac on the lower hangar bay.”

Hill nodded and started towards the exit. She looked down sharply as something slid in front of her. “Grenade!” she shouted, but wasn’t able to dive out of the way before it went off. She went tumbling down the stairs, striking her temple.

Fury fired at the entrance to the bridge, moving around for cover. A handful of men, all in SHIELD uniform, walked onto the bridge.

“I demand vacation time if we survive this tornado of chaos,” Carolyn said flatly from the monitor.

One of them shot at it, which only succeeding in getting rid of her image if her angry squawking noises were anything to go on. The distraction did allow Fury to step out from cover and engage the men. Between his weapon and hand to hand combat he was able to disable all but one of the men.

Maria shot that one.

“Are y’all dead?” Carolyn asked.

“We’ve got a perimeter breach!” Sitwell said into comms from his terminal. “Hostiles are in SHIELD gear. Hold on to every junction.”

“Hill, get on that evac,” Fury said.

“I’m taking that as a no then,” Carolyn said. “I’ve nearly got the systems back up and running. For the record, remember that this is not my job. But since I don’t want y’all to drown and die, I’ll forgive you.”

“Potts, if you don’t—“

“Got it, Director.”

“Sir, the Hulk and Thor are in shuttle levels 2, 3, and 4!” Sitwell said.

“Sir, the Hulk will tear this place apart!” Hill said.

“Sir,” Sitwell said. “Loki’s fighting Skurge on the deck. Loki seems to be losing.”

“Where’s Dr. Ross?” Carolyn asked. “Get her to calm Banner down.”

“I’m not risking Dr. Ross on the half assed chance that she can calm him down,” Fury said. “Get his attention.”

Hill nodded sharply and said into her earpiece, “Escort 606, proceed to 270 main shuttle. Don’t get to close.”

Carolyn muttered something under her breath that Fury couldn’t hear. Then, louder, “This is going to go badly.”

Fury smacked a button – one of the few that looked like they still worked after the bullet that went through the monitor – and Carolyn was muted. Since she didn’t immediately override it, Fury figured she’d gotten the point.

 

Steve was waiting for Stark’s order to pull the lever when a few SHIELD agents exited onto the catwalk down one level. He had a momentary thought that they were they to help until they started shooting and throwing grenades. Steve jumped yet again onto a different catwalk, down to where the enemy was. He fought them off, even tossing one over the catwalk (that was an accident, honest), but more entered and continued the game of “Shoot Captain America.”

“Stark, I’ve got hostiles,” he said as he grabbed one of the weapons and jumped and swung his way up to higher ground.

 

More and more hostiles poured onto the bridge despite the fact that they were essentially being mowed down by Fury, Hill, and the other SHIELD agents on the bridge.

“They’re not getting through here, so what the hell…” Fury mused, but then the answer became clear.

Barton appeared, loosing an arrow towards the bridge. It sent a cascade of explosions in critical spots, which allowed Barton to loose another arrow. This one sped towards Fury, but at the last moment hit the command desk right above a USB outlet. Fury fired at Barton, but the archer disappeared before anything could come of it.

“Mother bitch!” came a shriek from Carolyn before every monitor on the bridge went dark and the Helicarrier began to dangerously tilt to one side.

“Sir, we’ve lost all power in Engine 1!” Sitwell said.

“It’s Barton. He took out our systems,” Fury said over comms. “He’s headed for the detention level. Does anybody copy?”

“This is Agent Romanov,” came the answer. “I copy.”

“The system isn’t completely fried,” Pym said. “But between the first attack and this, it’s going to take some work. Carolyn’s locked out again though.”

“Do what you can,” Fury said. “As it stands now we’re going down without that engine.” He touched his comms. “Stark, we’re losing altitude.”

“Yeah,” Stark said dryly. “Noticed.”

 

The ship tilted dangerously, but Steve tried to hold his ground. He could see Stark out of the corner of his eye pushing the rotors of the engine faster and faster. Somehow he lost his footing and began to slide off of the catwalk. At the last moment he was able to grab a loose cable.

 

Thor had not been pleased when the jet had started firing at the Hulk seeing as he himself was in close proximity to the target. He was surprised when the Hulk took a leap at the jet to attack. Thor could only watch in mute horror as the Hulk ripped at the jet and threw the pilot away as if he was a toy. The Hulk disappeared towards the Earth.

He turned and ran for Amora’s cell, passing injured SHIELD agents along the way. When he arrived at the cell, the door was open and Amora almost out.

“No!” Thor shouted and charged Amora, who crouched to attack. But there wasn’t an impact. Instead Thor went hurtling through the door and the copy of Amora, landing on the floor in the middle of the cell.

The door to the cell closed with a hiss and a click. When Thor looked up Amora stood on the other side, smirking. “Loki did say you always fell for that.”

Thor rushed the cell, slamming Mjolnir into the door. To his surprise the door merely cracked, but the ship violently shook as well. “Amora, do not do this.”

She laughed cruelly. “They are mortal, Thor. Once upon a time they worshipped and feared us as gods. They are meant to be ruled.” She looked coyly at him. “Why not rule at my side?”

Loki had been correct then. “Amora, Thanos is using you,” Thor said. “Call off the attack and relinquish your hold.”

Amora’s face turned cold. “I had hoped that would not be your answer,” she said. “No matter. Soon the House of Odin will lose its heir and its spare for a second time.”

“What have you done with Loki?” Thor demanded, banging a fist against the cell wall.

Amora moved to the control panel, flipping a switch. The hatch underneath of the cell lurched open, showing nothing but sky below. “Skurge battles your brother,” she boasted. “He has bested your brother before, you remember. And this time the Lady Sif,” she spat out, “is not here to protect him.” She traced a finger over another button on the control panel. “These humans think us immortal. Shall we test that?”

The guard in the room suddenly went down, revealing Coulson standing behind him. He was holding one of the weapons crafted from the power of the Tesseract. “Move away, please,” he said.

Amora did so, though Thor knew it wouldn’t be as simple as that.

“You like this?” Coulson asked. “We started working on the prototype after the Destroyer arrived on Earth. Even I don’t know what it does. Do wanna find out?”

There was a wet gasp and it took Thor a moment to understand what he was seeing. Amora – the real Amora, not another of her doubles – stood behind Coulson. The scepter (though he did not know when that had come into her hands again) was impaled through someone. But it wasn’t Coulson.

It was Loki.

“Nooo!” Thor bellowed, smashing Mjolnir against the glass wall of the cell another time. The cell swayed dangerously and the ship jolted, sending Coulson stumbling into the wall. He struck his head and was stunned, losing his grip on the weapon.

Amora herself looked surprised at the turn of events. She pulled the scepter from Loki’s body with a wet sound. Loki slid to the floor. His gaze weakly found Thor’s.

“I had hoped Skurge would kill you,” Amora said, frowning slightly. “He was looking forward to it. But no matter, the result is the same. So dies the House of Odin.” She pressed the button on the control panel and Thor dropped into the sky. The last thing he saw before the Helicarrier slid from view was his brother, pale and unmoving with glassy eyes.

 

Natasha knew Clint knew she was there. Brainwashed or no, she knew how he fought. And he knew how she fought. She could get the upper hand on him, she just couldn’t let him get under her skin. Essentially that meant she needed to incapacitate him before he could start talking.

She kicked at his face, causing him to take a swing at her like she knew he would. She grabbed his arm, twisting it back. He tossed the knife into his other hand, trying to slash at her. She grabbed at his wrist with her other hand, causing them to be in a lock hold. He forced the knife closer to her face and neck, but she bit at his wrist, causing him to let go of the knife. She swung, wrapping her legs around his neck and forced him down, slamming his head into one of the pipes that ran along the catwalk.

He looked up at her and blinked in confusion. “Natasha?”

She punched him in the face.

 

His stomach had risen unpleasantly to the vicinity of his heart as he dropped out of the Helicarrier in the cell meant for Dr. Banner. Both in regards to the immediate free fall and the fact that his brother looked close to death. He would not lose Loki again, not so soon after finding out his brother had not perished when he fell from the Bifrost.

He bounced around the cell as it fell, trying and failing to smash the thing with Mjolnir. He could see land drawing ever nearer as he fell. As a last ditch effort, he positioned himself on the glass door and jumped from it just before it hit the ground.

 

Amora looked down the open hole without any emotion on her face, just a blank stare. She closed the hatch and proceeded to try and leave, sparing no look for either man on the floor.

“You’re gonna lose,” Phil said.

Amora turned to look at the man, lying in a pile on the floor, blood trailing from his head. “Am I?” she asked. “Your heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky. Where precisely is my disadvantage?”

“You lack conviction,” Phil said. Amora began to respond, but Phil fired the weapon directly at her, sending her flying through the wall of the Helicarrier and out into open air.

“Huh,” Phil mused. “So that’s what it does.” He pushed the weapon to the side and forced himself to move to Loki’s side despite the fact that he most assuredly had a concussion among other things. While Loki had taken the brunt of the impaling, Phil had definitely taken some of it. He could feel the throbbing pain in his back, but it didn’t seem life threatening.

The wound Loki had taken did seem so.

 

“Cap, I need the lever!” Stark shouted over comms.

“I need a minute here,” Steve responded, still partly dangling over open air. He continued to try and pull himself up even as Stark shouted that he needed it immediately. Steve pulled himself up, taking fire from the hostile men even if none of them were direct hits. He pulled the lever and turned back to the hostiles.

They began firing at Stark, who looked like he’d taken a beating inside the engine. He tackled the hostile into the wall, knocking the other man unconscious. Stark rolled over and Steve let out a sigh of relief.

 

Loki had not planned on taking a blow aimed at Agent Coulson, but somehow he had found himself between the mortal and Amora. The blade had sunk deep, but he could tell that it had not truly found its mark. He could still breathe despite the pain and there was no blood on his lips, meaning his lungs were intact. It was the blood on the rest of his person that worried him.

He had played up his injuries to Amora – the fact that Thor now probably thought him dead was an oversight, but he had also not anticipated Amora dropping his brother from the sky – but he was still injured.

The idea that Coulson would quite literally blow a hole in the Helicarrier was also an oversight on Loki’s part, but he was willing to accept that one and let it go. After doing so, Coulson crawled his way to Loki’s side, stripping off his jacket. The mortal winced and had clearly been injured by Amora, but seemed to be doing better than Loki was.

“Hang in there, your highness,” he said.

Loki swatted at the hands trying to press a wadded up suit jacket into his torn flesh. “I already regret saving your life. This is far from the worst wound I have sustained in battle.” He also refused to let Amora be the one to kill him as it would only make Sif find a way to resurrect him in order to kill him herself. While the wound was not the worst of all he had taken travelling with his brother, it was dire enough that he was glad he had swiped a few healing stones from Sif upon their last meeting. She was either none the wiser to his theft or had decided to not mention the fact that he had taken nearly seven from her since he revealed he was not actually dead.

The Director rushed into the room and skidded to a stop, surveying the scene quickly. “I need paramedics to the containment room immediately!” he called into his comms. “Prince Loki is down and Agent Coulson is injured.”

“I am not ‘down,’” Loki said. “I am not as breakable as you mortals are.”

“Where is Amora?” Fury demanded.

Loki pointed to the open hole in the wall.


	10. June 13, Part 4

Cleanup and damage control from the attack took a while. The living hostiles on board the Helicarrier were secured and the injured headed towards Medical to get checked out. Loki disappeared to a private room rather than being poked and prodded by “barbaric mortals.” There were casualties, but not as many as had been feared.

Jan had eventually turned up, glaring at Natasha and muttering about liquid nitrogen, but had been alright. Clint was secured in a much nicer cell than Amora had been considering it was designed as a medical cell. Natasha refused to leave his side for a minute, even to get herself checked out. Phil did have a concussion – Maria probably did too but she wasn’t getting checked beyond slapping a bandage on her temple – as well as a slightly punctured lung. They’d whisked him off for surgery to fix that up immediately.

Betty was infuriated with them all and refused to come out of the cell she had been put into for her own safety during the attack. She seemed equally annoyed that she had been shoved into a cell as to the fact that they’d attacked Bruce.

Eventually they all made their way back to the bridge and the briefing table there sans Phil who was still in Medical.

“What happened to Skurge?” Maria asked Loki, who looked far better than he had only 20 minutes prior, not to mention the forty minutes ago when he’d been impaled.

“I let him think he was winning and then pushed him off of the ship,” Loki said. “Hopefully he hit something hard, though I doubt it.”

“Do you think your brother’s going to be alright?” Jan asked.

“Thor seems to be impervious to death,” Loki said. “It’s been quite irksome over the centuries.”

Fury walked onto the bridge at that moment, heading directly for the table.

“We’re dead in the air up here,” he said bluntly. “Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you.” He paused. “Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could." He looked around the table at each of them in turn. "Phil Coulson still believes in that idea, in heroes.”

Tony shoved back from the table and walked off.

“Well,” Fury said, watching Tony go. “It’s an old fashioned idea.”

Jan rolled her eyes and stood up from the table as well. “Yeah, you need to work on your pitch. Regardless, I’m not done with this because she’s still out there and so’s the Tesseract. Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go see if Betty will let me talk to her.”

“I’ll continue to see if I can get communications back up,” Hank said.

 

Bruce was insanely uncomfortable when he woke up. Everything ached, there were sharp pointy things poking into his back and his very naked behind, and he had the kind of headache he only had after he’d turned into the other guy. The last thing he remembered was the explosion on the Helicarrier and the clear terror on Agent Romanov’s face despite her attempts to mask it.

When he opened his eyes the first thing he saw was the sky. Looking around he realized he’d crashed into some sort of warehouse and that he was completely naked. Neither of which boded well when he saw an old man who was clearly a security guard staring at him from close by.

“You fell out of the sky,” the man said, sounding completely amazed.

“Did I hurt anybody?” Bruce asked, dreading the answer. He hoped he hadn’t hurt Agent Romanov. He hoped Betty was alright and that he hadn’t hurt anyone aboard the Helicarrier.

“There’s nobody around here to get hurt,” the guard said, instantly assuaging some of Bruce’s guilt. “You did scare the hell out of some pigeons though.”

“Lucky.”

“Or just good aim,” the man said. “You were awake when you fell.”

“You saw?” Bruce asked.

“The whole thing, right through the ceiling,” the man said. “Big and green and buck ass nude. Here.” He tossed Bruce a pair of pants that were clearly going to be too big, but Bruce didn’t mind. Pants were pants. He’d learned that the hard way. “I didn’t think those would fit you until you shrunk down to a regular size fella.”

“Thank you,” Bruce said as he pulled them on.

The other man was silent for a moment before he asked a question. “Are you a big guy that turns into a little guy or a little guy that turns into a big guy?”

Bruce just shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Son,” the man said. “You’ve got some kind of condition.”

 

Natasha had been the one to strap Clint down onto the bed. She’d been the one to shuffle everyone out when the medical team wanted to stay to observe him. He’d been unconscious for nearly an hour and had only started to wake up recently. He was restless at first, muttering and murmuring to himself. She said soothing platitudes to him, promised him that everything was fine and he didn’t have to worry anymore.

She knew all of the words coming out of her mouth were lies. But Clint needed to hear it. _She_ needed to hear it.

“Clint, you’re gonna be alright.”

“You know that?” he asked. “Is that what you know? I gotta… I gotta go in though. I gotta flush her out.” He strained against his bindings, trying to twist over.

“We don’t have that long,” she said gently. “It’s gonna take time.”

“I don’t understand,” Clint said. “Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Pull you out and send something else in? Do you know what it’s like to be unmade?”

“You know that I do,” she said quietly.

“Why am I back? How did you get her out?” Clint asked.

“Cognitive recalibration,” she said. When he just stared at her she elaborated with a shrug. “I hit you really hard in the head.”

“Thanks,” he said. As she began to unfasten the restraints he asked somewhat desperately, “Tasha, how many agents?”

“Don’t,” she said sharply. “Don’t do that to yourself, Clint. This is monsters and aliens and magic and nothing we were ever trained for.”

“Amora and Skurge, they got away?”

“Yeah. I don’t suppose you know where?”

“I didn’t need to know,” Clint said, shaking his head. “I didn’t ask. She’s gonna make her play soon though. Today.”

“We gotta stop them,” she said.

“Yeah?” Clint asked. “Who’s we?”

“I don’t know,” Natasha said in defeat. “Whoever’s left. Pym and Van Dyne won’t give up. X-Men are on a mission and the Fantastics are stuck in Thailand on Johnny and Frankie’s honeymoon. Somebody might've tried to contact the Brotherhood or third party groups, but I don't know.”

“Well,” Clint said. “If I put an arrow in Amora’s eye socket, I’d sleep better I suppose.”

“Now you sound like you,” Natasha said.

“But you don’t,” Clint said. “You’re a spy, not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did she do to you?”

“She didn’t, I just,” Natasha started. “I got red in my ledger. I’d like to wipe it out.”

They sat in silence together for a moment before Clint asked, “You tell Laura?”

“Carolyn covered all the bases. She sent Mockingbird out to secure Laura and the kids. Didn’t explain why to either of them. Didn’t let Bobbi say where they were going either.”

Clint nodded and said, “Good. Good,” quietly.

 

Tony hadn’t been able to stand Fury’s speech and so he’d stormed out, finding himself in the detention cell Amora had recently been in. There was a pool of blood on the floor near a smear of blood on the wall from where Loki and Coulson had fallen.

“I’m sorry,” Rogers said from behind him. “He’s a good man.”

“He’s an idiot,” Tony said.

“Why?” Rogers asked. “For believing?”

“For taking on Amora alone,” Tony said. “She could have killed him. She would’ve if it hadn’t been for Loki.”

“He was doing his job,” Rogers said.

“He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have…” Tony turned away from Rogers and braced his hands on the railing.

“Sometimes there isn’t a way out, Tony,” Rogers said from behind him. “And right now Fury has the same blood on his hands that Amora does. But we’ve got to put that aside and get this done. Amora needs a power source, if we can put together a list…”

“She made it personal,” Tony said, staring at Coulson’s blood on the wall. He didn’t know Coulson all that well, didn’t know _Phil_ all that well. But he was Pepper’s brother-in-law now and he’d been to the big wedding reception and Pepper had been her sister’s maid of honor. If it hadn’t been for Loki Carolyn would have gotten a phone call telling her that her husband was dead.

“That’s not the point,” Rogers said. 

“That _is_ the point,” Tony argued. “That’s Amora’s point. She hit us all right where we live. Why?” She’d hit Rogers in Germany whether he realized it or not, Romanov with Barton, Barton with his brain washing, Banner with the Hulk, and Thor with the apparent death of his brother.

“To tear us apart,” Rogers said.

“She knows she has to take us out to win, right? That’s what she wants. She wants to beat us and she wants to be seen doing it. She wants an audience for when she conquers the world,” Tony said.

“Right,” Rogers said. “I caught her act in Stuttengard.”

“Yeah,” Tony said, thinking fast. “That’s just a preview, this is opening night. Amora’s a full-tilt diva. She wants flowers, she wants the ticker tape parade, she wants a monument built in the skies with her name plastered…” He trailed off, realizing exactly where the Tesseract was. “Son of a bitch!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Laura is not Clint's wife, she's his sister.


	11. June 13, Part 5 - The Battle for New York

Steve walked into the room, fully dressed in uniform and looking ready for battle. “Time to go,” he said.

“Go where?” Natasha asked, entirely unprepared. She’d counted him out of the fight against Amora given his expression in Medical earlier when he was getting looked at.

“I’ll tell you on the way,” he said. “Can you fly one of those jets?”

Clint walked out of the bathroom attached to the room. “I can,” he said, looking at Steve.

Steve glanced at Natasha, who nodded. “You got a suit?” he asked Clint.

“Yeah.”

“Then suit up,” Steve said.

“Are Pym and Van Dyne in too?” Clint asked.

“And Stark.”

“Good,” Natasha said. “We’re going to need them.”

 

They gathered at the entrance to the Quinjet hangar, Steve giving Hank’s outfit a side eye. Jan huffed. “Look, I get that they look weird, but have you tried dealing with Pym particles and textiles in order to determine the best flexibility for shrinking and growing?”

“No,” Steve said slowly.

“Then don’t question the fabric choices. Question his color choice in that shade of red all you want, but don’t question the fabric,” she said pointedly to Loki who had rolled his eyes.

“Have you tried offering that to Dr. Richards?” Clint asked.

“He doesn’t want my help. So he can continue to wear space suit lining,” Jan said. “I’ve also tried to work on something for Johnny, but again, doesn’t want my help.”

“Later,” Steve said. “Let’s go.”

They walked into the hangar and towards a Quinjet. Inside a young SHIELD agent stood in their way, looking somewhat anxious.

“You are not authorized to be here,” he began.

“Son,” Steve said, shaking his head. “Just don’t.”

 

Fury stood on the bridge, looking out the front window. Dr. Pym had done a great deal to get the ship closer to working order, and Carolyn’s process of hacking in via cell phone and USB port was slowly taking care of the rest. Thankfully, the audio on the bridge wasn’t working and he’d taken his comm out so he couldn’t really hear her complaining beyond the faint buzz coming from his jacket breast pocket.

A loud noise screeched out in front of the windows. The Iron Man suit went flying off away from the Helicarrier with a Quinjet in close pursuit.

“Hill,” Fury said after he put his comm back in. “Get our communications back up, whatever you have to do. I want eyes on everything.”

 

Tony landed near the device that would power the portal for the Chitauri. Selvig activated it just as he arrived though.

“Sir,” JARVIS said. “I took the arc reactor offline. The device is already self-sustained.”

“Shut it down, Dr. Selvig,” Tony ordered.

“It’s too late!” Selvig said, eyes bright with what looked like madness. “It can’t stop now. She wants to show us something! A new universe!”

“Okay,” Tony said and aimed a repulsor blast at the device. Selvig fell backwards at the deafening crack and slight shockwave that resulted, but the device remained unharmed.

“The barrier is pure energy,” JARVIS said. “It’s unbreachable. The Mark VII is not ready yet to be deployed.”

“Skip the spinning rims,” Tony said. “We’re on the clock.” He took off from the roof and headed down to the landing pad he had installed for the Iron Man suit. As he walked through the gauntlet it removed the suit from him piece by piece.

Amora was waiting, lounging on his couch in his conversation pit. Casually Tony headed for the bar, trying to look like it was the alcohol he was headed for and not the bracelets sitting on the counter by the sink.

“Oh please tell me that you’re going to appeal to my… humanity,” Amora said.

“Uh… Actually, I’m planning to threaten you,” Tony said.

“You should have left your armor on for that, mortal,” Amora said, shifting in a way that was designed to show off her ample cleavage. The armor she was wearing looked anything but practical considering the amount of cleavage it did actually reveal. And he’d seen what Asgardians were capable of making for women thanks to the security footage of Lady Sif and the Warriors Three courtesy of SHIELD. He’d seen the move done by countless women, and while it had worked in the past, now he was just surprised she was resorting to it.

“Yeah,” Tony shrugged. “It’s seen a bit of mileage. You’ve got the blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?”

“Stalling me won’t change anything,” Amora said, leaning back into the couch now.

“No, no, no,” Tony said as he wandered over to the bar where he’d left the bracelets for the Mark VII. “Threatening. No drink? You sure? I’m having one.” He poured himself a drink, making sure to slide the box containing his bracelets to a more advantageous location for sleight of handing them onto his wrists.

“The Chitauri are coming and nothing will change that,” Amora said. “I have Skurge, who is so enamored with me enough that he will follow me to the ends of the known universe, regardless of the fact that I carry little affection for him.” She shrugged. “What have I to fear?”

Tony sincerely hoped JARVIS had recorded that last bit for posterity and to bite Amora in the ass later. “The Avengers,” Tony said. Amora looked confused at his statement. “It’s what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. Earth’s mightiest heroes type of thing.”

“Yes, I’ve met them,” Amora said. “Seems I took care of a few of them too.”

“Let’s do a head count here. Thor, a demi god and has a wicked hammer; Loki, another demi god who happens to be a magic knife wielding one; a super soldier who’s a living legend that actually kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; the always lovely Miss Van Dyne who can supercharge the hell out of you; someone who’s almost as smart as I am; a couple of master assassins; and you, sweetheart, you’ve managed to piss off every single one of them.”

“That was the plan,” Amora said cheerfully.

“Not a great plan,” Tony pointed out. “When they come, and they will, they’ll come for you.” He slipped the bracelets on from the cover of the bar and hoped that the Mark VII would in fact be ready when this all inevitably went south.

“I have an army,” Amora said, still clearly pleased with herself and her presumed outcome of the day.

“We have a Hulk,” Tony said.

“And I thought he was gone, same as both the princes of Asgard,” Amora said. “Or did Loki manage not to perish after all? Pity, I’ll have to work on that.”

“You’re missing the point,” Tony said, walking around from behind the bar. “There’s no throne, there is no version of this, where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it’s too much for us, but it’s all on you. Because if we can’t protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we’ll avenge it.”

Amora rose from the couch and slowly made her way towards Tony. “How will your friends have time for me when they’re so busy fighting you?” she asked with a pout.

Tony had a brief second of momentary panic when the tip of the spear touched his chest.

_Clink_

Amora frowned and tried again as Tony felt a strange sense of relief and gratefulness for the shrapnel inside his chest.

“It should work,” Amora said.

“Well, performance issues, you know,” Tony said. Amora grabbed him by the throat and flung him across the room. He landed roughly, feeling his body protest. “JARVIS. Anytime now.” Amora stalked towards him as he tried to get up and grabbed him by the throat again, holding him above the floor.

“You will all fall before me,” Amora said darkly.

Tony wasted a second to ponder the inhuman strength of Asgardians before she literally threw him out of a window, glass breaking around him. He pushed the panic down and held his arms out, partially to reduce the freefall and partially in hopes that the goddam Mark VII was actually going to work.

Thankfully it did.

Tony ended the descent as the Mark VII finished attaching to his body and started upwards again, seeing a beam form from the Tesseract energy, shooting up into the sky. A vortex formed, slow at first, but then it opened wide. Wider than Tony had thought it would open regardless of the iridium involved in the process.

A hole in space ripped open, and from it, the Chitauri army spilled forth. The cameras on the outside of the suit zoomed in, showing him a closer detail of the small figures on the HUD. Strange looking aliens riding flying chariots, all carrying energy rifles with bayonets, coming in the thousands.

“Right. An army,” he said to himself. He flew up, launching a missile from the shoulder rocket launcher. But against the wave of thousands of Chitauri it was barely a dent. He headed back to the city, hoping to try and get the people to start heading for cover before the Chitauri descended on them.

 

Amora was standing on the balcony, surveying the chaos descending on the streets below when Thor landed. She turned to face him and sighed. “I see you survived as well.”

As well? Did that mean she had not killed Loki?

“Amora! Turn off the Tesseract or I will destroy it!” he said.

“You can’t,” Amora laughed. “There is no stopping it. There is only war!”

“So be it,” Thor said, rushing at Amora.

He had never actually fought her before. There was no reason to. She had not trained to be a warrior of Asgard and did not have the right to wear Asgardian armor. He had fought with Skurge – and had nearly lost to Skurge – but it was just Thor and Amora now. And regardless of whatever training she had been given over the centuries, he could and would defeat her.

 

Tony headed for the Tower once he had a number of Chitauri in their chariots chasing after him. The Quinjet with the other Avengers and Loki had yet to appear over the city, despite the fact that they’d left the Helicarrier at the same time and the fact that he’d taken a detour to the Tower to get the Mark VII.

“Stark, we’re heading north east,” came Romanov over comms.

“What, did you stop for drive-thru?” Tony asked. “Swing up Park, I’m gonna lay em out for you.” He banked around the Tower. On the balcony he could see Amora fighting Thor. “Hey guys, Thor’s not dead.”

“I told you he would survive the fall,” Loki said tersely. “He is immune to his own stupidity.”

Tony swooped down to the street and then back up, causing a few of the Chitauri to crash their chariots. He rocketed back up, putting some of his Chitauri trail into direct view of the Quinjet. A machine gun dropped from underneath it and fired at the Chitauri.

“Sir,” JARVIS said. “We have more incoming.”

“Fine. Let’s keep them occupied,” he said as he turned and headed back for the portal.

 

Loki was standing uncomfortably close to the seat Clint was in, staring out the window on the left side of the Quinjet. Clint glanced over and saw Thor and Amora fighting one another on the balcony. Amora fired energy from the scepter, sending Thor sliding across the floor and nearly to the edge of the balcony.

Clint banked the jet towards the Tower and aimed the machine gun, firing upon Amora. Stark could send him a bill (that he most assuredly would not pay) for the damages to the tower later. But Amora fired another beam of energy from the scepter at the Quinjet. Thor tackled Amora, but the damage was done and the Quinjet was going down.

“Hold on,” Clint said as she struggled for control to maneuver the jet to the ground safely. Loki’s presence behind him vanished as they went down.

“Hank?” Jan asked. “You think you can, like, catch us or something so we don’t die?”

“Open the hatch,” Hank ordered.

“What?” Clint asked. “You shrink! You can’t catch us!”

“Open the hatch,” Hank ordered again, making his way to the back of the Quinjet. Natasha hit the hatch release button on the dashboard and Hank dove out of it.

“I really hope your boyfriend knows what he’s doing,” Natasha said.

“Well, he’s not _just_ Ant Man,” Jan said. “Though yeah, I really hope he catches us before we hit the ground. Also, fiancée, not boyfriend.”

Clint could only stare out of the windshield as Dr. Henry Pym fell to the streets below and started to get bigger and bigger. As soon as he had his feet planted on the ground he reached for the Quinjet, grabbing it and trying to assist in preventing it from crashing. The jet jolted, but Hank placed them down safely. Clint peered up through the windshield at the now very tall Hank.

“Uh, SHIELD doesn’t know he can do that,” Clint said. He glanced at Natasha. “It’s gonna be handy though.”

Jan unstrapped from her seat in the back of the Quinjet and shrugged as she stood. “He prefers to be Ant Man rather than Giant Man. And it’s not like we’ve revealed _all_ of our secrets.”

“He has two names?” Natasha asked. “Really?”

“Again, he makes some questionable choices,” Jan said. “But yeah, it’s gonna be handy.”

Natasha popped the hatch back open and they all headed out, finding Loki waiting for them at the foot of the ramp.

“Thanks for abandoning us,” Clint said.

“I didn’t particularly feel like crashing,” Loki said with a shrug.

Hank shrunk back down and walked with them back towards Stark Tower. When they reached an intersection a deep, primal roar of rage sounded through the city. The people around them who had been trying to get inside of buildings for cover went still.

From the portal in the sky, a massive creature emerged, flying over the city. Chitauri soldiers dropped from it, attaching themselves to the sides of buildings or crashing into them. They began firing on the innocent bystanders who were still frozen in fear.

“Stark, are you seeing this?” Steve asked.

“I’m seeing, still working on believing,” Tony said. “Where’s Banner? Has he shown up yet?”

“Banner?” Steve asked incredulously.

“Just keep me posted. JARVIS, find me a soft spot.”

 

Thor heard the bellow from the creature but didn’t turn to look until he had Amora in his grasp. He forced her to look at the city and the people she was destroying. The creature – a Chitauri leviathan – was far larger than Thor anticipated the Chitauri having at their beck and call.

“Look at this!” he urged Amora. “Look around you! You think you will bring peace to this madness with your rule? You think they will _let_ you rule?”

“It’s too late,” Amora said. “It’s too late to stop it. And they will be ruled. I never said I wanted to bring _them_ peace.”

She twisted and a sharp, piercing pain appeared in Thor’s side, causing him to bend, releasing Amora from his grasp.

“Such sentiment for these pesky creatures,” she said. “Perhaps I will visit your pretty little mortal next.”

Thor lunged for her, but Amora laughed and stepped off the side of the balcony. When he reached it and looked down she was gone, riding one of the Chitauri’s chariots away.


	12. June 13, Part 6 - The Battle for New York

Down on the street, they could see Amora’s chariot lead a group of Chitauri towards them. The Chitauri began firing at the street, setting off a chain of explosions that threw cars and hurled people into the air. People were running for buildings, screaming and terrified.

Steve looked down to the lower level of the bridge. “Those people need assistance down there.”

There were blasts at them, sending rubble from the road flying into the air. Natasha whirled, pulling her guns out of their holsters and began firing. She titled her head towards Steve and said, “We got this. It’s good. Go!”

“You think you can hold them off?” Steve asked Clint.

“Captain,” Clint said, pulling a trigger on his bow. There was a slight mechanical noise and the arrows in his quiver turned and came to a stop. “It would be my genuine pleasure.” He pulled the arrow from the quiver, knocked it, and shot it into one of the Chitauri’s heads.

Loki disappeared briefly, reappearing in the thick of the Chitauri advancing on them as Steve took off running towards the plaza. Jan and Hank shrunk rapidly, flying towards the Chitauri. Clint took the momentary advantage to dart over to a bus full of people. One parent tried to pass their child out the broken window to Clint, but instead he went to the dented doors and jerkily pulled it open, allowing everyone to run out.

“Head inside,” he said, ushering the people out and pointing to the closest building. The glass doors would do little against the Chitauri, but there was a security guard – probably also useless given that he looked like a Rent a Cop – holding the door open and waving people in.

As soon as all the people were clear, Clint returned to firing at the Chitauri, hitting his mark each time, and made his way back to Natasha.

“Just like Budapest all over again!” she said somewhat cheerfully.

“You and I remember Budapest very differently,” he said, annoyed at her cheerful tone.

 

If there was one single thing that Steve appreciated the most out of the super soldier serum was that the asthma went away and his lungs genuinely seemed to have grown as the rest of his body did. So even though his legs were beginning to burn, he was breathing fine and clear as he raced towards danger.

He saw a small group of cops and aimed for them, leaping on top of the car they were crouched behind. “I need men in these buildings,” he said, pointing to them. “There are people inside that can run into the line of fire. You take them through the basement or through the subway. You keep them off the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th.”

“Why the hell should I take orders from you?” the Sergeant asked.

There was an explosion behind them, and Steve spun, absorbing the bulk of the blast with his shield. Two Chitauri soldiers attacked, but Steve fought them off and dealt with them, ripping the arm off of one of them in the process.

“I need men in those buildings!” the Sergeant ordered as he turned and stepped away. “Lead the people down and away from the streets. I need a perimeter as far back as 39th!”

Steve tossed the Chitauri weapon down to an officer, Chitauri arm still inside. “See what you can do with this.”

 

Tony swerved around buildings, trying to reach the giant fucking space ship alien through the maze of Manhattan’s skyline. He faced the creature and fired multiple mini rocket launchers at the thing, causing it to roar in annoyance and turn towards him.

“We got his attention. What the hell is step two?!” Tony asked JARVIS as he rocketed away.

 

The ground fight against the Chitauri could only mildly be considered to be going well. Natasha had run out of ammo for her own guns and stolen one of the Chitauri weapons and was using it as a blunt force weapon more than anything. Clint was running out of his own ammunition as well, using his arrows to stab close by assailants and then shooting them. Loki was living up to his title as god of trickery through his ability to create doubles, disappear, and recall the knives he threw.  Steve didn’t really know what Hank and Jan were doing, but it was effective regardless. All he could do was push them back and whack them with his shield.

The Chitauri just kept coming though, wave after wave of them.

A bolt of lightning struck, blasting the Chitauri back and nearly the Avengers in the process. Thor landed in the center of the blast radius, immediately looking towards his brother. He looked over at Loki with relief in his eyes and a grin on his face despite their current situation.

“Brother, you survived,” he said.

“As if Amora would be the one to best me,” Loki said. “The plan was to make her believe that was the case and then rid us of her myself. Agent Coulson might have altered those plans though.”

Thor looked confused until Clint said, “He blasted her out the side of the ship.” Steve noted that he didn’t explain what type of weapon was used to do so and that Clint was actually wandering around their small battlefield collecting his arrows from the dead Chitauri.

“I believed I would have to tell the Lady Sif of your death,” Thor said. “I am relieved that is not the case.”

“What’s the story upstairs?” Steve asked, though Loki seemed to look uncomfortable at the mention of Lady Sif.

“The power surrounding the cube is impenetrable,” Thor said, getting back to business.

“Thor’s right,” Tony said over the comms. “We’ve gotta deal with these guys.”

“How do we do this?” Natasha asked, looking at the others.

“As a team,” Steve said.

“I am not part of your team,” Loki said.

“Brother, Amora will bring the end of this planet and potentially the end of the known universe,” Thor said.

“I am aware of that. I am not part of your team,” Loki said.

There was a sputtering noise of an engine from down the street. They all looked and Steve was stunned to see Bruce on a small motorbike. He got off and looked around the city.

“So,” he said. “This all seems horrible.”

“I’ve seen worse,” Natasha shrugged.

“Sorry,” Bruce said, looking slightly ashamed.

“No,” Natasha said. “We could use a little worse.”

“Stark?” Steve said. “We got him.”

“Banner?” Tony asked.

“Just like you said,” Steve said, staring at Bruce pointedly.

“Tell him to suit up,” Tony said. “I’m bringing the party to you.”

Around the corner of a building a head of them, Iron Man flew out. Behind him, the gigantic Chitauri monster followed.

“I… I don’t see how that’s a party,” Natasha said.

Iron Man swooped down, the Leviathan following, barreling down the street like a freight train that kept building and building in intensity.

Bruce looked back at Steve and then began walking forward.

“Dr. Banner, now might be a really good time for you to get angry,” Steve said.

“That’s my secret,” Banner said, pulling his shirt off. “I’m always angry.”

While the man didn’t look particularly angry, he began to swell and turn green, becoming the Hulk. He leapt towards the leviathan and punched it directly on the nose, causing it to twist in the air. Iron Man fired a rocket towards what seemed to be a soft spot in its hide armor given the cry of pain and chunks of flesh that flew out of it. Steve pulled his shield up in time to keep some of the flaming chunks from hitting him.

“Hey,” Hank said as he started to grow. “Anybody seen that Skurge guy? I mean, since neither Thor nor Amora died after falling from the Helicarrier, I think it’s safe to assume he’s not dead either.”

“Not yet,” Stark said. He turned to face them and began to fly up but froze. “Wait. Since when do you grow?”

“Since always,” Hank said as he easily reached the leviathan and slammed it to the ground, doing some serious damage to it and the ground.

“I’ll admit, that’s a little more impressive than shrinking to the size of a bug,” Tony said.

“Who’s going to pay for property damages to the city?” Jan asked as she stared at the cracks in the tarmac made by the dying leviathan.

“Is this really the time?” Clint asked.

There was another roar, this one louder and actually managed to cause some of the smaller bits of debris to shake. They all looked up to see thousands of Chitauri and more leviathans pour out of the portal.

“Guys,” Natasha said.

“Call it, Cap,” Tony said.

“Alright, listen up,” Steve began. “Until we can close that portal up there, we’re gonna use containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash.”

“Wanna give me a lift?” Clint asked Tony.

“Right,” Tony said. “Better clench up, Legolas.” He grabbed the back of Clint’s vest and flew up to the top of one of the skyscrapers.

“Thor, you’ve gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You’ve got the lightning, light the bastards up,” Steve said. He turned to the others. “Loki, you – are gone. Well, the rest of us, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here.” He turned to face the Hulk. “And Hulk, smash.”

The Hulk grinned wide and leapt, soaring high up to the nearest building to attack the Chitauri perched on the vertical surface. He then used it as a jumping off point to leap towards the building on the other side of the street, using the dead Chitauri as projectile weapons.

“I am so glad he’s on our side,” Jan said.

The Hulk backhanded the Chitauri near him and threw them towards the ground. Then he jumped higher than before and leapt to a group of the Chitauri chariots, smashing them down to the ground as well.

 

Thor reached the Empire State Building and grabbed onto the top of the tower. He raised Mjolnir and called down a bolt of lightning. It struck Mjolnir, though it did no damage to him, and he aimed it for the portal in the sky. When the shockwave of electricity struck the Chitauri pouring from the portal they were blasted back. Many convulsed and went into a freefall towards the ground. The shockwave ripped through one of the leviathans, gouging deep wounds into it before it exploded, doing damage to the Chitauri soldiers near to it.

 

Communications weren’t quite back up in full functioning working order. They couldn’t communicate with the Avengers or anything in HQ directly beyond Carolyn’s office. She was directing and rerouting communications through her direct connection via Coulson’s phone to the ship. All Fury could do was order people on the ship and watch the destruction occurring in Manhattan on the view screens.

“Sir,” Hill said from behind him. “The Council is on.”

How the hell did the Council manage to get connected to the Helicarrier? Carolyn wouldn’t have done it. She hated them. And if she couldn’t manage to work up any sort of connectivity beyond hacking her husband’s phone and then hacking into the Helicarrier via USB, how exactly _had_ the Council?

 

Clint hadn’t been joking when he told the Director that he saw better from a distance only two days prior. (Jesus, had it really been less than 72 hours since everything began? He really might have to steal Carolyn’s therapist after this.) The elevation the skyscraper gave him afforded him a much better tactical view of the Chitauri’s battle plan.

They didn’t have one.

Which, on the one hand, meant that they were pretty much just running amok and were relatively easier to pick off that way. On the other hand, that meant they were running amok and had little predictability. His position in the sky, rather than Stark’s, meant that he could see the tactical advantages the Avengers had.

“Stark,” he said. “You got a lot of strings sticking to your tail.”

“Just try and keep them off the streets,” Stark said tersely.

“Well, they can’t bank worth a damn,” Clint said. “Find a tight corner.”

“I will roger that,” Stark said. Clint continued to shoot his arrows at any Chitauri that came into his range and watched as Stark took his Chitauri tail on a winding, twisting path through the surrounding area until there were none left. “Nice call. What else you got?”

“Well, Thor’s taking on a squadron down on 6th,” Clint suggested.

“And he didn’t invite me?”

 

It was endless, the Chitauri just kept coming. For every one they took down, another appeared to take its place.

“Captain, none of this is gonna mean a damn thing if we don’t close that portal,” Natasha said.

“Our biggest guns couldn’t touch it,” Steve said.

“Well, maybe it’s not about guns,” Natasha said, looking up at the chariots flying over head.

“I think that’s a bad idea personally,” Hank said from up where he was quite literally batting them out of the air in some cases.

“You wanna get up there, you’re gonna need a ride,” Steve said.

“You want me as backup?” Jan asked.

Natasha began to back up from Steve to give herself a running start. As Steve angled his shield for her Natasha shook her head. “You stay here.”

“Are you sure about this?” Steve asked.

“Yeah,” Natasha said, though she didn’t seem completely convinced of that statement. “It’ll be fun.” After a beat, she ran up a car, using it as a jumping off point to land on Steve’s shield. Steve pushed up and sent her flying into the air. 

She grabbed onto one of the chariots flying above them and climbed on board, cutting the link to the Chitauri gunner attached to it. It plummeted to the ground and landed on a car, sending both up in a blaze. During the battle, they’d discovered the Chitauri weren’t 100% organic aliens, only partly so. Mostly they were mechanic and electricity seemed to short circuit them for good. Hank was fascinated and Natasha could only imagine the argument between Stark, Hank, and Fury about examining the Chitauri. Jan just made jokes about the Borg and assimilation, which Steve didn’t understand in the slightest. Still, it gave Natasha some ideas.

She jumped onto the back of the rider and slammed her knives into its nervous system. She used them to control the Chitauri and, in essence, pilot the chariot. She banked the chariot over a building, intent on headings towards Stark Tower. The whine from Iron Man’s repulsors sounded behind her right before an explosion.

Tony flew down towards Steve, aiming his repulsors at Steve’s shield. Steve used his shield to redirect the blast, aiming it at the Chitauri surrounding him. From above, arrows rained down on those that didn’t fall to the beam. Hank grabbed a Chitauri heading for Tony and threw it towards a Leviathan.

The Leviathan barely noticed the Chitauri that went flying into it as Thor and the Hulk were attacking it from its back. Hulk tore a massive piece of the armor from its back and stabbed it in deep. The Chitauri bellowed and twisted, trying to buck them off. Thor lifted Mjolnir and called forth lightning, bringing it down upon the creature.

The Leviathan went down, crashing into the edge of the New York Public Library and part of Bryant Park. Thor and the Hulk stood on its back still. Thor grinned widely. At least, until the Hulk punched Thor and sent him flying.

A boulder went flying into the Hulk, which pushed him back off of the Leviathan corpse. He stood back up and glared at the being that had chucked the piece of rubble at him.

Skurge stood there, axe missing. The Hulk roared and jumped towards Skurge.

 

“Captain,” Clint said. “The bank on 42nd past Madison, they caught a lot of civilians there.”

“I’m on it,” Steve said.

 

Inside the bank, dozens of people were gathered, huddled together on the first floor in the center of the atrium. Three Chitauri soldiers stood on the second level overseeing them, training their weapons on the scared and anxious humans. One of them set the charge on a bomb.

Steve jumped through the window on the second floor and threw his shield at the Chitauri that had charged the bomb. The other two Chitauri aimed their rifles at Steve, but he ducked for cover under a desk and then proceeded to kick the desk at them. He jumped over the desk, putting one of the two Chitauri in a headlock and backhanding the other over the railing. There was a panicked shriek from one of the people below as they moved away from the Chitauri corpse.

The bomber attacked Steve from behind, ripping off his helmet.

“Everyone! Clear out!” Steve shouted as the Chitauri ripped off his helmet. Steve flipped the soldier over and grabbed his shield. The Chitauri dove for the bomb, though Steve couldn’t tell if it was to stop it or make it go off faster. Regardless, the bomb went off and Steve barely had enough time to jump and tuck as much of himself behind his shield as possible before he went flying through the window he’d only just barely entered from moments before.

Steve took a second, just one second, to breathe through the pain before pushing himself up off of the car he’d landed on and onto the ground. He looked around, unconcerned that his face was visible to the fire and rescue teams that were pulling the civilians from the bank.


	13. June 13, Part 7 - The Battle for New York

Fury stared down the disguised members of the World Security Council on his monitor.

“Director Fury, the Council has made a decision.”

“I recognize that the council has made a decision,” he said. “But given that it’s a stupid ass decision, I’ve elected to ignore it.”

There was a giggle in his ear and Carolyn said, “Sorry, don’t know how they made contact when I can barely get in without the software on Phil’s phone.”

“Director,” another member of the Council said. “You’re closer than any of our subs, you scramble that jet-.”

“That is the island of Manhattan, Councilman. Until I’m certain my team can’t hold it, I will not order a nuclear strike against a civilian population.”

“If we don’t hold them in the air, we lose everything.”

“I send that bird out, we already have,” Fury said before shutting his view screen off.

 

Natasha was nearly at Stark Tower when a blast of energy hit the side of her chariot. She looked around, trying to figure where it had come from. Behind her, Amora raced closer in a chariot of her own.

“Oh, you,” Natasha sighed, and turned forward. She tried to get her chariot to go faster.

 

From Clint’s perch on top of the skyscraper he could clearly see Amora chasing after Natasha and getting every so closer. They dove between buildings, up and down.

“Nat, what are you doing?” he asked.

“Uh…a little help!” came the request over comms.

Clint pulled the trigger on his bow twice, selecting a particular arrowhead from his quiver. He aimed the arrow straight at Amora and smiled. “I’ve got her.”

He fired the arrow, sending it directly towards Amora’s face. She caught it at the last second, and smirked in his direction. Clint just kept on smiling and, if anything, grinned wider as the arrow exploded in her face, sending her crashing into Stark Tower.

He watched Natasha jump from the chariot and for a breathless moment hang in the air before landing securely on the top of Stark Tower where the CMS device was. 

 

Amora looked up at the ceiling for a moment as she collected herself. When she pushed herself to her feet and rose she surveyed the room and remains of the chariot, only to stop short.

“Loki,” she said upon seeing him standing in front of the glass wall.

“You will be stopped,” he said. “These truly ridiculous mortals are hell bent on saving their world.”

“And why would you side with them?” Amora asked. “You nearly had everything at your fingertips on Asgard. You could have let your brother die here with these mortals. Then you would be the only heir to the throne.” She paused, a wicked gleam appearing in her eyes. “Or are the rumors true? After your fall, there were whispers that the line of Odin has only one heir to the throne. Is that why the Lady Sif ran to her love? To save Asgard for the true heir?” She spat out Sif’s name with hatred.

“There are a variety of reasons why Lady Sif and the Buffoons Three headed to Midgard,” Loki said. “The fact that you were able to hear of any is… interesting. As I recall you were banished from Asgard at the hands of Lady Sif and the Valkyries.”

Amora scowled. “The only reason I was banished was because of the rumors _she_ began regarding my relationship with her beloved prince. After I’ve conquered this realm I will enact my vengeance upon her. Perhaps I’ll introduce her to that mortal your brother is infatuated with. Show her what it feels like when Thor loves another.”

Loki sighed and lunged for Amora, knives out and ready. She anticipated it and dodged him, trying to attack him as well.

“For your information, Thor was never in love with the Lady Sif and she was never in love with him. You were banished from Asgard due to your plots and plans to compromise my brother and stage a coup.”

“Thor deserves to be ruler of Asgard! And I deserve to be Queen, not that bitch!” Amora said, lunging for him badly.

Loki sidestepped the desperate swipe and drove one of his blades into Amora’s shoulder where her armor didn’t cover. “Whether or not he deserves it is not the point,” he said as she fell, a scream of pain and rage coming from her lips. He conjured bindings for her, ones that would keep her securely in place and out of trouble. She hissed and seethed at him as he dumped her onto one of the couches in the room. He leaned in close and smirked. “And as for the Lady Sif, I would appreciate it if you ceased insulting my betrothed.” He enjoyed the momentary look of shock on Amora’s face before he struck her temple with the hilt of his blade, knocking her out.

 

The Hulk roared as Skurge tossed him across the street into the storefront of a building.

“You are an admirable foe,” Skurge said. “But I have fought gods and you are merely a creature of mankind’s madness. You are no true match for me. It is best to bow down now before I must destroy you.”

The Hulk roared again and charged Skurge, momentarily stunning the alien, and grabbed a leg. He lifted Skurge high and smashed him against the ground, again and again, before throwing him to the side. Skurge made a weak noise but did not move.

“Puny god,” the Hulk said.

 

Natasha made her way to the CMS device on the roof. Dr. Selvig was slumped down next to it and when she approached, looked up at her desperately. The Tesseract continued firing energy to the portal, gaining in strength.

“Doctor,” Natasha said.

“The scepter, the energy… the Tesseract can’t fight it,” he said weakly. “You can’t protect against yourself.”

“It’s not your fault,” Natasha said gently. “You didn’t know what you were doing.”

“Well, actually I think I did,” Selvig said. “I built in a safety to cut the power source.”

“Amora’s scepter,” Natasha said.

“It might be able to close the portal,” Selvig said, looking down towards the lower levels of the roof. “And I’m looking right at it.”

 

Clint fired his last arrow at the Chitauri closing in on him. He began to use his bow itself as a weapon, knocking some of the Chitauri soldiers away. He grabbed his last arrow off of one of the corpses and jammed it into the quiver quickly to select a different arrowhead for it. He pulled it back out and dove down the side of the building, shooting the now grappling arrow up the side of the building. It connected, locking on tight, and he swung into the glass wall of the building.

He landed painfully and felt something snap in his chest. Not bad enough that the rib had punctured anything, but it was definitely broken. Or fractured. If he survived this – if they all survived this – he was gonna get yelled at by at least five different women, possibly more if Hill decided to join in.

 

On the Helicarrier in one of the fighter jets, a lone pilot sat, waiting.

“Director Fury is no longer in command,” came the voice over his headset. “Override order, 7 Alpha 11.”

“7 Alpha 11, confirmed. Prepare to take off.”

 

On the bridge of the Helicarrier Hill saw the jet preparing to leave. “Sir, we have a bird in motion! Anyone on the deck, we have a rogue bird! We need to shut it down! Repeat! Take off is not authorized!” she shouted.

Fury turned and booked it for the deck, grabbing an RPG from the armory on the way. He arrived on the deck barely in time, firing the missile just as the jet was beginning to ramp up for takeoff. The missile hit the tail of the jet, causing it to skid off. He breathed a sigh of relief, but suddenly another jet took off.

“Stark, you hearing me? We have a missile headed straight for the city.

“How long?” Stark asked.

“Three minutes, at best. Stay low and wipe out that missile.”

He turned and ran back towards the bridge and the connection to Carolyn. When he reached the bridge he could already hear the argument between her and Hill.

“Our nuclear missile system is so horribly outdated and ridiculous, I cannot hack into a nuclear missile!” she shouted over the phone. “It has to be disabled and neutralized via the stupid control panel on the goddam thing!”

“Can you find the codes to do that?” Fury asked. “If he needs to, Stark can enter the code himself.”

“I am already working on that,” Carolyn said. “I am also already attacking the Council’s personal information.”

“You know the identities of the World Security Council?” Fury demanded.

Carolyn went silent. “Noo… Shit, missile is launched.”

 

When Natasha had climbed down to get the scepter, Loki walked out onto Stark’s balcony. “Amora’s taken care of,” he said, watching her warily as she grabbed the scepter off the ground.

“Selvig created a back door to possibly shut the portal down for good,” she explained, heading back up to the CMS device.

“Really?” Loki asked. “Isn’t that clever.”

Natasha shook her head and moved towards the CMS device and the barrier surrounding it quickly. She pushed the point of the scepter towards the force field, slowly breaking through it. She paused when the scepter was nearly touching the Tesseract.

“I can close it!” she said over comms. “Can anybody hear me? I can shut the portal down!”

“Do it,” Steve said.

“No, wait!” Tony shouted.

“Stark, these things are still coming,” Steve said.

“I’ve got a nuke coming in, it’s gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it,” Tony said.

“I’m sorry, did you say nuke?” Jan asked incredulously. “Whose bright idea was that?”

“Not Fury’s, that’s for sure,” Tony said.

“What’s going on?” Loki asked.

“Someone – the World Security Council I imagine – launched a nuclear weapon towards Manhattan to destroy the Tesseract,” Natasha said. “In addition to killing thousands of innocent people, I imagine it’s only going to make the problem worse.”

“Yes, yes it will,” Loki said.

 

Tony caught up with the missile, coming at it from behind. There was half a second of feedback in his ear before a voice replaced it.

“I have the deactivation codes, you just need to enter them and it’s all good,” Carolyn said. “You can deactivate it and Natasha can close the portal.”

“I’m giving it to Thanos as a thank you present,” Tony said. “Jarvis, hang up.”

Carolyn squawked as Tony grabbed onto the missile, pulling hard against its forward momentum. He managed to wrench the missile off course and steered it from behind, up towards the portal in the sky.

“Stark, you know that’s a one way trip?” Steve asked.

“Save the rest for the return, J,” Tony said.

“Sir,” Jarvis said. “Shall I call Miss Potts?”

“You might as well,” Tony sighed.

 

Pepper, the crew, and employees had been watching the battle from the TV screen on the Stark Jet since it began. Actual footage was spotty thanks to the Chitauri flying around the city, but they’d all been glued to it. Now, with Tony clearly flying up towards the giant hole in the sky that had aliens pouring out of it, Pepper felt her stomach sink and horror and dread fill her.

She didn’t notice her phone vibrating quietly beside her.

 

Natasha watched as the tiny red object that was Tony Stark’s suit fly up into the air and get smaller before disappearing completely into the portal. She fought to keep the scepter in the barrier and stuck near the Tesseract, waiting for the moment to close the portal for good.

Suddenly, all the Chitauri flying around and the Leviathans stopped, keeling over and shaking for a few seconds before stopping. Those that had been flying dropped to the ground, causing explosions and destruction. Natasha and Loki just continued to look to the sky.

“Come on, Stark…” Natasha muttered.

She waited for Tony to emerge from the portal but got nothing.

“Close it,” Steve said wearily as an explosion emerged from the portal.

Though she wished she didn’t have to, Natasha didn’t hesitate to yank the scepter out of the force field, causing the Tesseract to turn off. She hadn’t really liked Stark all that much, but Pepper Potts was a good woman who didn’t deserve to have her cocky boyfriend die.

“Ah,” Loki said.

Natasha turned and looked towards the portal which was rapidly closing. A tiny object was dropping from it.

“Son of a gun!” Steve said.

 

In the basement of SHIELD’s primary headquarters in New York, Agent Carolyn Potts-Stark was half standing behind her desk, staring at the array of monitors on the opposite wall in horror as her not-brother-in-law (but assuredly future brother-in-law if he had his way) fell from the sky in free fall. One hand was clenched around her phone, Pepper’s number on the screen but not dialed yet.

 

On the ground, Thor peered up at Tony. “He’s not slowing down,” he said. He swung Mjolnir around, preparing to fly up towards Tony.

The Hulk jumped off a building out of nowhere and pulled Tony out of the sky, crashing and sliding down a building. When the two landed on the ground, the Hulk tossed Tony onto the ground.

Thor, Steve, Jan, and Hank (who was now back to normal Hank size) ran over to where Tony lay on the ground. Thor flat out ripped the face mask off of the suit to reveal an unresponsive Tony who looked like he wasn’t breathing either. Jan clutched at Hank’s arm.

The Hulk roared at Tony in fury, startling Tony into gasping.

“What the hell?” Tony asked. “What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me.”

Jan’s breath hitched and she buried her face in Hank’s shoulder. “We won,” Steve said.

“Alright. Hey. Alright,” Tony said. “Good job guys. Let’s just not come in tomorrow. Let’s just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There’s a shawarma joint about two blocks from here, I saw it when I was flying. I don’t know what it is, but I wanna try it.”

Thor looked up at Stark Tower. “We’re not finished yet.”

“And then shawarma after,” Tony said after a second.

Loki appeared on the ground near them. “Ah, good. You’re not dead.”

“And where the hell have you been this whole time?” Jan asked.

“Fighting Chitauri. Securing Skurge after Dr. Banner left him on the ground. And incapacitating Amora. She’s secured.”

“I’d like to make sure of that myself if you don’t mind,” Steve said.

“Yeah, it’s gonna take me like twenty minutes to get to you guys,” Clint said. “And then we have to get up to the Stark Tower.”

“My brother can help with that,” Thor said. Loki looked at him with an unimpressed look. Thor’s face softened – and Jan would swear up and down when anybody asked that he was definitely making sad puppy dog eyes. Loki sighed heavily.

 

After the Tesseract was no longer glowing and Dr. Selvig had the computer system secure, Natasha made her way down to the penthouse with the scepter. Amora was stirring, though still securely bound with some kind of glowing rope around her ankles, binding her arms to her torsos, and around her wrists.

The other Avengers appeared by the smashed windows, all holding hands or some other body part. Hank looked fascinated at the teleportation, but the others just looked tired. As she looked them over, Natasha realized that Clint also looked like he was in pain.

“As you can see, she is completely secure,” Loki said. They moved closer to Amora.

Amora opened her eyes and saw all of them standing there in front of her. “Ah,” she said, licking her lips. “And what will you do with me now? Banish me from this realm as well?”

“SHIELD’s going to take you into custody,” Steve said. Thor shot him a look. “And then, I think, you and your friend Skurge will head towards Asgard for sentencing if the Allfather so desires. I bet he’d like to know how you got here.”

“You’re going to send me to Asgard?” Amora said. “I’ll just be banished again.”

“I think not,” Thor said. “You allied yourself with Thanos in a bid to conquer a world you have no right to.”

“And you threatened his girlfriend,” Tony said.

Amora looked at Loki and smiled. “Now I remember, what was it you said about the Lady Sif before you assaulted me? The Lady Sif is your betrothed? How long have you and the Valkyrie reject been sneaking around behind your brother’s back? Behind the court’s back?”

Thor turned to his brother in shock. “You and Sif are to be wed, brother?” he asked. “When did this occur and why did you not tell me?” He grinned brightly. “Mother will be pleased to hear of this. Sif will make an excellent sister.”

“Yeah, it’s not exactly news that he and Lady Sif have been dating for centuries,” Clint said to a stunned Amora.

“Uh, guys?” Jan said. “Is it just me or is the Hulk shrinking?”

Everyone turned to look at the Hulk, who did indeed seem to be shrinking slowly. “You know, I had been wondering how he was going to become Dr. Banner again,” Steve said.

The Hulk snorted at Steve and then began to shrink and turn less green at a more rapid pace until Dr. Banner was standing there in bare feet, clutching the much looser than before waistband of his pants against his body.

“That’s never happened before,” he said.

“What’s never happened before?” Tony asked.

“Uh, I’ve never changed back before. Every other time I’ve just woken up somewhere and been me again,” Bruce said. He shifted slightly. “And, can I get some clothes? And some shoes.” He looked down. “There’s kind of a lot of broken glass on the floor.”


	14. June 13 [Post Credits]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was unaware of this, but apparently there's a comic (?) where Rhodey shows up during shawarma, so here you go.

Shawarma had clearly been a bad idea.

Thor had dragged Amora down to the ground level and Loki had gone to get Skurge from where he had been left when the Hulk had been done with them. While they’d been doing that, Tony raided his meager closet at the tower for clothes and shoes that might fit Bruce now that he’d shrunk down. Natasha went to go hunt down any first aid supplies she could find. With help from Jarvis she was able to find a small collection of basic first aid supplies, which was better than nothing. She’d practically shoved the pain killers down Clint’s throat.

Once Bruce was dressed Tony had forced them all to follow through on what he believed to be the promise of shawarma.

But it had clearly been a bad idea.

The bell over the door tinkled, a cheerful bright sound at odds with everything else. The owners of the establishment were in the back of the restaurant floor space, sweeping up some of the debris that had made it in through the broken windows they had been boarding up with then Avengers arrived.

“So, this ‘situation’ that requires backup is an alien invasion.”

“Platypus!” Tony said. “Come on in, take a seat.”

“How did you get here?” Jan asked.

“Cashed in a favor,” Rhodey shrugged as he pulled a chair over to the four tables they’d shoved together. Tony offered him his basket of food.

“What took you so long?” Tony asked. “I called you two days ago.”

“I was in Hong Kong, Tony,” Rhodey said. “And then I got ambushed by the Ten Rings before I could leave. You failed to mention the situation was an alien invasion.”

Tony shrugged. “Would you have come if I said that?” Rhodey leveled a glare at him. “Didn’t I blow up the Ten Rings?”

“You blew up one ring,” Rhodey said. “There were another nine of them. Now they’re back to ten.”

“Anyways, that’s Thor, that’s his brother Loki, you’ve heard me complain about Dr. Pym, this is his better half Jan, Dr. Bruce Banner, Agent Clint Barton, and presumably you met Natashalie at my birthday party.” Natasha rolled her eyes. “Oh, and that’s Captain America.”

Rhodey turned and fully took in the sight of Captain America. Steve made a halfhearted effort to not look like he could really do with a gallon of coffee. Rhodey’s eyes widened and sputtered. “It’s – you’re – this is.”

“Hi,” Steve said simply.

There was another cheerful tinkle from the bell over the door. “I’m going to murder all of you,” Carolyn said. “You missed all the good parts, Colonel.”

“I think ‘good parts’ is debatable,” Natasha said.

“Carolyn,” Rhodey said. “How are you?”

“Murderous,” she responded. “What the hell do you think you’re even doing?” she asked the rest of the Avengers.

“Eating shawarma,” Tony said.

“Amora and Skurge are tied to a lamp post outside,” Carolyn said flatly.

“Yeah, I was gonna ask about that,” Rhodey said.

“You were supposed to bring them to SHIELD custody,” Carolyn said. 

“You look terrible,” Clint said.

“And I’m going to punch you,” Carolyn responded. “You look terrible too, by the way.”

“Hey,” Clint said, standing up. Carolyn narrowed her eyes at him as he walked towards her. “It’s not like I wanted to get brainwashed.” He hugged her, though her arms remained crossed and she remained stiff.

“I have gotten three hours of sleep cumulative since you were compromised, my blood stream is now made of coffee sludge, and I have thrown up five times and can’t eat anything other than freaking crackers without feeling like I’m going to do it again,” Carolyn said. “I would greatly like to punch Amora but I’m pretty sure I’d break my hand if I tried it.”

“Probably,” Loki said from where he was seated at his own table away from the others, staring at them in semi repulsion. That may have had something to do with Thor’s process of demolishing his food.

“Are the kids okay?” Clint asked.

“Yeah, they’re fine,” Carolyn said. “Everyone’s fine. I didn’t know what you were going to do so everyone’s fine. Kate wouldn’t leave town though, so she’s probably going to murder you in your sleep.”

Clint winced at that.

“Who’s Kate?” Tony asked. “She your girlfriend?”

“Hah, no,” Carolyn said. “Okay, time to pack it up. Skurge and Amora need to be handed over for SHIELD custody and all of you need to get checked out by Medical.”

All of the Avengers made a face at that. “I think I’m fine,” Tony said.

“I’ll let you slide because my sister will verbally kick your ass later,” Carolyn said. “Also, you should definitely call my sister. And the rest of you are getting checked out. And Dr. Banner, Dr. Ross would like visual and verbal confirmation from you that you haven’t been kidnapped and thrown in a cell somewhere.”

“Okay,” Bruce said slowly.

“Come on, up and at ‘em. Off to Medical we go,” Carolyn said. “Your highnesses, Medical also wants a look at you but I told you that wasn’t likely to happen. And Dr. Banner, I promise you don’t have to go to Medical if you don’t want to. Everyone else does though.”

The Avengers reluctantly got up from the table with some stiffness and pain. Tony pulled his wallet out and dropped three $100 bills on the table as they trooped out. Thor and Loki took custody of Amora and Skurge, both of whom were secured with Loki’s magical bindings. Amora even had a magical gag over her mouth. Clint and Natasha hung back with Carolyn.

“Seriously, are you okay?” Clint asked.

“I called Keira and we’re temporarily doing once a week again,” Carolyn sighed. “Just for a month to see where I’m at and then it might be back to once a month. You want me to call Jay and see if he can schedule you two in?”

“Yes,” Natasha said quickly.

“Cool. Oh, Bobbi’s fine too,” Carolyn said. “I mean, I assume she is. She’s not due to check in until midnight. I sent her to Laura as soon as I got news you were brainwashed.”

“Natasha told me,” Clint said. “I’m super thrilled you sent my protégé to watch my sister.”

“You’re welcome,” Carolyn said. “I could’ve sent Kate instead.”

 

As soon as they got to the Helicarrier Betty appeared and flung herself at Bruce. He was momentarily startled by the sudden appearance of a person attached to him, but took it in stride. Medical appeared shortly after that and Betty dragged him off before they could try. Medical did take the Avengers off to get looked over for a second time in one day. Each of the Avengers who would be seeing a doctor had their own staff member latch on and start to drag them towards the Medical wing. Though Tony wasn’t going to let any of the SHIELD Medical staff look him over, he followed the rest of them. Rhodey just stared at everything on the Helicarrier in between sneaking glances at Captain America as he followed as well.

“You should call Pepper,” Carolyn said. “I’m trying to arrange transportation for her to get back into town. Everything’s a nightmare and shut down. But, you know, it’s not like she watched you fall out of the sky and potentially die. And it’s not like I had to call her and assure her you weren’t dead.”

“Right,” Tony said as Carolyn walked off towards where Phil Coulson was lying in his bed. He looked at Rhodey.

“Tell her I got your back, okay?” Rhodey asked before walking off towards the Avengers.

“Tony?” she asked, picking up on the first ring. “What’s going on?” There was rustling on her end of the line, a click, and then considerably less background noise. It sounded like she’d made her way to the private room on the back of the Stark Jet.

“I’m fine,” Tony said. “Suit’s a little dinged up, but I’m fine.”

“Carolyn told me, but… Don’t you ever do that again,” Pepper said. “I watched you fall. The news choppers didn’t have footage of you on the ground though so I couldn’t tell what happened.”

“I’m fine,” Tony said. “Everyone’s fine. Mostly. Coulson’s a little bleedy, but he’s 100% glaring at me from his bed right now.” Tony turned away and headed over to an unoccupied corner of the room. “Look, I’m fine, I promise. And your sister’s going to get you here. She’s not going to let some stupid airports keep that from happening. Platypus missed all the action, but he told me to say that he’s got my back.”

“He always does, even if you don’t like the results,” Pepper sighed. “Okay. I just – you worried me. And Phil – why is he bleeding? Carolyn did not explain that part.”

“Amora may have tried to kill him. She failed thanks to Loki. But she did manage to puncture a lung a little bit,” Tony said.

“Okay,” Pepper sighed. “I’m going to hang up now before you tell me any more bad news that I can do nothing about. You are going to get my sister to get my jet to an airport.”

“Oh, it’s your jet, is it?” Tony asked. “I thought it had my name on it.”

“And I’m the CEO, it’s my jet. You can have 12% of it,” Pepper said.

Tony chuckled. “I guess I deserved that. I love you.”

“I love you too, Tony. Please be careful until I get there.”

“I’ll see you soon, Pep.”

Tony ended the call and looked around Medical. Thor and Loki were off to the side talking to one another. Jan and Hank were in beds next to each other getting poked and prodded. Clint and Natasha were in beds next to Phil. Whether they’d claimed them or been shown to them by the Medical staff he didn’t know. Carolyn was flitting between the three of them.

“Steve, we’re going to get you a Quinjet to get home directly to Brooklyn. The vast majority of Manhattan’s still completely down,” she said.

“You getting the rest of us Quinjets?” Clint asked.

“SHIELD wants you here for observation due to the brainwashing,” Phil said. “And you haven’t had X-Rays taken yet.”

Clint started to object but Carolyn interrupted him. “I told them Natasha and I would observe you tonight.”

“Why not let Jarvis monitor him?” Tony said suddenly.

Everyone looked at him. “Uh, Stark, your Tower is no longer habitable,” Hank said.

“That’s definitely not the only property I have in New York,” Tony said. “I mean, the mansion hasn’t had anybody but the cleaning service in two decades, but there’s the penthouse.”

“You’re offering to have people stay in your penthouse?” Rhodey asked.

“Why not?” Tony shrugged. “Manhattan’s trashed. I’ve got six other bedrooms that never get used.”

“That… might be easier,” Clint said slowly.

“Hey, we don’t have anywhere to stay,” Jan said. She looked over at Hank. “I’m down with that. And I doubt Betty or Bruce have anywhere to stay.”

“I mean, I can and have broken into the Fantastic Four’s place,” Carolyn said. “But the Chitauri attacked it too seeing as it’s only a couple of blocks from the tower. Everyone going to one place would be easier, I can arrange it no problems.”

“You’re invited too if you plan on sleeping at all,” Tony said.

“There’s only a 10% chance I’ll sleep, but we’ll see,” Carolyn said.

“Go tell Banner and Ross,” Natasha told Tony.

“Is Jarvis hooked up to the penthouse?” Phil asked.

“Yes,” Tony said. “But not the townhouse, or we’d be staying there.”

“The house across from Central Park?” Steve asked. “That is not a townhouse. That’s a mansion.”

“How do you know about that place?” Tony asked.

“I did know your father,” Steve said.

“Right,” Tony said. “I’m gonna go find Banner and Ross.”

As Tony headed out of Medical he heard Carolyn call, “Wait. Is there any food there?”

“Probably not,” he called back.

 

After everyone had been checked out by SHIELD Medical personnel Fury gathered them together. Rhodey wasn’t allowed and Carolyn had disappeared after a SHIELD agent while Clint was back getting his X-Rays taken and hadn’t returned. The results were that Steve had a single cracked rib and that Clint had two on the same side. Aside from some scrapes and bruises Hank had fared pretty well. Jan had a single broken finger and a truly spectacular black eye. Natasha was mostly fine as well. Tony was undoubtedly injured in some regard, but since he wouldn’t allow SHIELD Medical staff to take a look at him he remained “uninjured.” Natasha had promised Medical that she’d keep an eye on him. If he looked like he was about to pass out or did keel over she’d ensure his ass got hauled off to Medical, permission or no permission. It went unsaid that once Pepper showed up in town she would most assuredly make Tony see a medical professional.

Once they were all settled around a different briefing table, Steve asked, “When can we head back down to assist in the clean up?”

“How about never?” Fury said.

“Uh, no I definitely think the job’s not done yet,” Jan said.

“I brought you all together to save the world,” Fury said. “You did that. Your job is done now. SCUDS job is just beginning.”

“What the hell is SCUDS?” Tony asked. “It sounds like a communicable disease.”

“You would know,” Hank muttered under his breath. Before Tony could respond to that, Jan punched Hank in the shoulder. Clearly, she’d added a little sting to it given how Hank yelped.

“SCUDS is the Superhuman Cleanup Department of Sanitation,” Fury explained. “SHIELD needs to take custody of all of the alien tech out on the streets before it gets into the wrong hands. SCUDS is on top of that as well as helping to clear the debris from the aliens themselves.”

“What about the people who need help? The fires?” Steve asked.

“That’s what emergency services are for,” Fury said. “You’re injured, you need to rest and heal.”

“Yeah, I’m not down with that,” Tony said. “We helped to cause the mess, so we should help clean it up. I’ve got suits that can help with that. They may be in California right now, but Jarvis can autopilot them out here and they can be operated remotely if needed. Rhodey’s got his and didn’t get the chance to use it anyways.”

“Doesn’t the US military own that suit?” Hank asked.

“Nope,” Tony said cheerfully. “They coopted my property. Iron Patriot isn’t real. It’s War Machine and technically still mine, but Rhodey gets to keep it so long as the army doesn’t use it.”

“I appreciate that you want to help,” Fury said. “But you’ll draw attention. And I’m sure Stark Industries already has its hands full dealing with the fallout from it being your tower the portal was coming from.”

“Then the rest of us go,” Hank said. “Undercover as ourselves if need be. The public doesn’t know who Steve Rogers is, or that Hank Pym’s anything other than a scientist.”

“If they know that much,” Jan said. “There are people out there that need our help. The Chitauri did a lot of damage. I’m sure right now as we speak there are people trapped in buildings that may collapse at any moment.”

“The attack wasn’t just around Stark Tower,” Clint said. “We did what we could to contain it, but there were some that got out. Grand Central needs help. Thor and the Hulk crashed a Leviathan into Bryant Park and the Library. Also, there may be some broken windows and glass doors on the roof of the Baxter building. And there may be a dead Chitauri on the roof as well.”

“Richards is gonna love that,” Tony said.

“This is because of the debrief interviews, isn’t it?” Natasha asked.

“What debrief interviews?” Hank asked.

“There’s always a post-op debrief,” Natasha said. “It’s standard operating procedure. But the World Security Council’s going to want a debrief interview of their own, aren’t they?”

“I may… misplace a few of you before that happens,” Fury said.

“You didn’t have approval for the Avengers Initiative, did you, Nick?” Tony asked. “No wonder they tried to nuke the city.”

“Thanks for not letting that happen, by the way,” Jan said.

“The World Security Council wanted to create weapons to deal with the oncoming threats Thor revealed to us,” Fury said. “As I said, I didn’t really have much hope in that plan.”

“Yeah, we got that,” Steve said. “Why won’t you let us help the city?”

“It would be best if you let SHIELD handle this,” Fury said.

“Like SHIELD handled the cleanup of the Stark Expo last year?” Tony asked, crossing his arms across his chest. “Hammer’s in jail and I was promised I’d see that tech dismantled and destroyed myself. It’s been seven months since you made that promise. How do I know you’re not using that like you were using the Tesseract?”

Betty looked around the table. “Why don’t we take Tony up on his offer to let us stay at his penthouse until you all recover and everyone’s able to go home?” she said placatingly “Unless, of course, you need those post operation debriefing interviews now,” she said to Fury, eyes wide and guileless.

“I do, but you can all go at the same time to speed things up,” Fury sighed. “I’ve got enough people that can do your interviews. Wait here.” He turned and left the room.

Once the door latched Betty looked at everyone. “Natasha, Clint, do you have any objections to people going to assist in the relief efforts if they want to?”

“Nope,” Clint said. “I’m out though, given the ribs and the fact that they made me take narcotics.”

“Fine by me,” Natasha said. “I’m on Stark babysitting duty though. Where he goes I go.”

“Why are you babysitting me?” Tony asked. “I don’t need babysitting.”

“Medical’s worried you may have internal bleeding,” Natasha shrugged. “And your girlfriend will kill one of us if you end up dying over that. You’re free once she gets here.”

“So, we do our post mission debriefs, get SHIELD to take us to the penthouse, lose them if necessary, and then head back into the city,” Steve said.

“Sounds like a plan,” Jan said. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1.) I have wondered unendingly where the hell Loki was during the post credits scene.   
> 2.) Going off of the addresses I found for Stark Tower and the Baxter on wikipedia and other such sites, they are well within walking distance of one another. That will come into play later.   
> 3.) The copy of the script that I was using specifically said that the Leviathan crashed into a library and I Google Mapped the hell out of every street name and all information regarding where they might be in Manhattan, so Bryant Library lost and was somewhat crushed under a giant alien.


	15. June 13 - Calming Down

It was completely understandable but incredibly frustrating that all the airports around New York City – extending into Connecticut and New Jersey even – were giving her the runaround. It took almost two hours to get the Westchester County Airport to finally let the jet land. And that was the result of a combination of Pepper’s arguing, Carolyn’s hacking, and ultimately a little telepathic interference from one Charles Xavier. Everyone else on the jet got hotel accommodations in the surrounding area, but Pepper found herself on a Quinjet only moments after disembarking from the SI jet. She landed on the roof of the building with Tony’s penthouse and barely remembered to thank the pilot before she raced towards the elevator.

(She did forget the overnight bag she’d taken, but the pilot caught up with her to hand it over.)

Tony was waiting for her in the penthouse’s private entrance. He always acted like she didn’t know that he had Jarvis subtly monitoring her phone at all times. Lord knew her sister was. If Jarvis didn’t have a sense of propriety and morals, she might’ve made a fuss about it. But there were definitely some benefits to it, such as Tony waiting for her.

She knew he was fine, she _knew_ thanks to her sister and Jarvis, but seeing him in person…

He grunted in pain as she collided with him, but his arms were tight around her. She hugged him tightly for a few moments in silence. “You are going to go see a doctor as soon as possible,” she eventually said, surprised to hear the sob in her throat.

“You know how doctors feel about the arc reactor,” Tony said.

“I’ve got a friend,” Pepper said. “Or SHIELD does.”

“Not sure how I feel about SHIELD poking at me at the moment,” Tony said as he pulled back slightly.

“We can discuss that later,” Pepper said. “What’s going on? I didn’t get much out of Carolyn.”

“Well, she’s currently taken over my kitchen,” Tony said petulantly.

“You don’t even use it and you’ll be benefitting from it soon enough,” Pepper said. “Is everything alright?”

“Amora and Skurge are in SHIELD custody,” Tony said. “Loki’s ensured that she’s going to remain right where she is. Skurge’s a little subdued I guess. Apparently, he _didn’t_ know Amora carried a torch for Thor all these centuries. There’s a lot of clean up to be done, but everything’s over for now. And my tower – _our_ tower – is in need of repairs already.”

“I saw it on the flight into the city,” Pepper said. “But fixing the tower can wait.”

“Miss Potts, your sister would like me to inform you that she requests your presence,” Jarvis said.

“Alright,” Pepper said. “Who exactly is here right now?” she asked Tony.

“Agent’s under observation after the punctured lung thing. Natashalie’s been babysitting me for some unknown reason, Harry Potter’s here as far as I’m aware, and Legolas. Everyone else is out there cleaning and helping,” Tony said. “Jarvis flew a few suits out here and is remotely operating them to help with the clean up too.”

“You’re going to have to stop calling her that,” Pepper said as they walked into the rest of the penthouse. “And maybe don’t call the prince of another planet ‘Harry Potter.’”

“How about not?” Tony asked.

The penthouse was divided into two, with the bedrooms completely partitioned off to the left while everything on the right of the penthouse was open plan except for the master bedroom in the back-right corner. Agent Barton was sitting stiffly upright and looked uncomfortable on the **L** shaped couch in the living portion of the penthouse to the right of the entrance. Something mindless with explosions was on the TV. Loki wasn’t visible, but Carolyn was in the kitchen at the back of the penthouse doing something with the stove. Natasha was sitting at the kitchen island but was watching the TV from her spot rather than helping Carolyn.

“There you are,” Carolyn said. “Sorry I couldn’t get you here any faster.”

“It’s not a problem,” Pepper said as she made her way over to the kitchen. Carolyn stopped what she was doing and hugged Pepper tightly. Pepper returned the hug as tight as her sister. Even though Carolyn had been located in a basement of SHIELD’s offices, she was still in the city and if that nuke had gone off… it wouldn’t have mattered. Also, considering Carolyn’s separation anxiety issues, Carolyn probably needed the hug more than Pepper did.

When they separated, Carolyn smiled a little too brightly. “I’ve heard from the Fantastics and the X-People who are on their super-secret mission. They’ll all be heading back to New York soon.”

“They can help with the cleanup efforts at least,” Natasha said.

“You going to introduce Thor and Ro?” Pepper asked.

“Hell yeah,” Carolyn said. “They can have lightening fights. I’m picturing rampant destruction. But yeah, they’ll be here to help.”

“I’m sorry Johnny and Frankie had to cut their honeymoon short,” Pepper said.

“I think it’s weird that all of them went on the honeymoon,” Tony said. He surreptitiously tried to sneak some bacon from the pan on the stove but Carolyn smacked his hand.

“So, what now?” Pepper asked.

“Now you go change into something not business wear,” Carolyn said. “I continue multi-tasking, you all eat the fruits of my stress because thinking of eating is making me nauseous, and we wait for everyone to get back. Maria may come or Team Rockett might show up. I don’t really know what’s going on anymore.”

“Who’s Team Rockett?” Tony asked.

“Her assistants,” Natasha said. “Jesse and James.”

“I don’t get it,” Tony said.

“Carolyn, change the channel,” Clint called from the couch. “Start with episode 1.”

“No,” Natasha said. “I don’t want to watch Pokémon.”

“I’m the injured party here,” Clint said.

“Alright, give me ten minutes to get changed,” Pepper said.

As she headed through the kitchen to the private master sitting room off the fancier of the two master suites the argument between Clint and Natasha over watching Pokémon or not continued.

Tony followed her into the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed while she changed into jeans and a comfortable shirt. “Alright, now either you or JARVIS is going to tell me how you actually are.”

“JARVIS won’t tell you anything I don’t want him to,” Tony said.

Pepper paused and stared at Tony. “Really? Is that what you think? JARVIS, sit rep please.”

“I’m fine, Pep,” Tony said. “And I’m not sure you want to hear everything that happened anyways. You’ll just worry.”

“Oh, and is that supposed to keep me from worrying?” she asked incredulously. “Jarvis, now.”

“Mr. Stark has sustained several injuries, though no fractures that I can determine. There is numerous bruising and quite possibly a sprained left wrist. Additionally, Miss Potts, I am uncertain how long Mr. Stark was unconscious until Dr. Banner’s … alternate personality awoke him. I myself unfortunately was down as well.”

Pepper took a deep breath before turning to face Tony again. “You’re seeing a doctor. End of story.”

“I,” he began.

“I don’t care. You can see a SHIELD doctor, you can see an Army doctor, you can see my friend who’s a doctor. But you are going to see some sort of a doctor with a valid medical degree,” she said. “And I’m saying this both as your girlfriend and as the CEO of your company, of which you claim to be the entire R & D department.”

Tony frowned but stopped arguing. She’d known him long enough to understand that didn’t mean he was done arguing about the topic, but at least he wasn’t going to push it now.

Back in the rest of the penthouse Carolyn had pulled a roasting pan out of the oven. In it was a chicken, vegetables, and potatoes. Pokémon was in fact on the TV. “Where exactly did you get this food?” Tony asked.

“Raided my apartment, raided Natasha’s apartment, raided Clint’s for the beer,” Carolyn said. “Jarvis, could you let Loki know there’s food if he wants it?”

“You raided my apartment for beer?” Clint asked as he got up from the couch and headed towards the kitchen space.

“You can have it later once the narcotics have worn off more despite the fact that it’s before noon,” Natasha said. “God knows you won’t take the second dose of them. You wouldn’t have taken the first if Medical hadn’t forced you to.”

“How did you break into my apartment?” Clint asked as Carolyn started plating the food.

“Your lock sucks. Natasha taught me how to pick it like two days after you moved into that rat trap,” Carolyn said.

“It is not a rat trap,” Clint said.

“What is that?” Tony asked, referring to the TV.

“We’re introducing you to Pokémon and Team Rockett,” Clint said.

“So, I got a message from Maria while you were getting changed,” Carolyn said. “After this I’m heading back to base but I’ll be back later. Probably not with more food, but there’s enough here. You still letting me not sleep here, Stark?”

“If you feel like it,” Tony said with a shrug.

 

Carolyn had left around noon and Pepper spent the following hours close to Tony. He didn’t really do naps, but while Natasha observed Clint and Loki did whatever he was doing, she forced Tony to at least lay down for a while. She got maybe 20 minutes of sleep in, but Tony did actually pass out almost as soon as he was in the bed. She spent the rest of his two-hour nap just curled around him.

“Are you being creepy?” he asked. “Usually I’m the one watching you sleep.”

“I really doubt you slept any since I left for DC. And you woke up at 4 that morning,” Pepper said.

Tony shrugged. “Jarvis, who’s here now?”

“Agents Barton and Romanov,” Jarvis said. “Doctors Banner and Ross have also returned.”

“I wanna meet them,” Pepper said, getting out of bed and searching for where she’d tossed her jeans.

“His Highness Thor, Miss Van Dyne, Dr. Pym, Captain Rogers, and Colonel Rhodes have yet to return,” Jarvis continued.

“Jarvis, ping Rhodey and ask how things are going,” Tony asked. “Why do you want to meet Ross and Banner?”

“Her father’s an ass and they’re both brilliant,” Pepper said.

“What does Thunderbolt have to do with anything?” Tony asked. “Though that reminds me. Apparently, he’s to blame for the destruction of Harlem last year.”

“That’s intriguing, though hardly surprising,” Pepper said. “I’ve turned him down for a meeting four times since I took over as CEO. The first time he left a 15 minute rant about how he’d hoped I’d be more rational and how angry he was that Stark Industries would continue to halt the manufacture of weaponry.”

Tony’s phone rang then, and after glancing at it, he said, “It’s Rhodey. You go meet the Doctors.”

Pepper nodded and headed out of the bedroom. Bruce was in the kitchen brewing a pot of tea – presumably something Carolyn had brought over as well. Pepper knew there hadn’t been anything in the kitchen at all since she and Tony had been staying at the Tower for the past week. Bruce looked startled when she walked out.

“Hi,” she said. “I’m Pepper.”

“Ah, Bruce.”

“How are things looking out there?” Pepper asked.

“Uh, rough,” Bruce said. “There’s a lot of damage. Thor’s out there in jeans and a t shirt helping, which is weird. But since Fury didn’t want us out there, Jan figured incognito Thor was a good idea.” He shrugged. “I mean, he’s got what amounts to super strength, so I figure most people think he’s a mutant.”

“Is Loki out there?” Clint asked from the couch. Pokémon was no longer on the TV but another animated show was, this one involving fighting and … a green guy with tentacles coming out of his forehead?

“I thought he was here,” Pepper said.

“Jarvis said he bounced about an hour ago,” Clint said.

“Not that I could see,” Bruce said. “But there’s a lot out there that needs to be dealt with.”

Betty walked out from the bedroom half of the penthouse and paused. “Oh, hi,” she said.

“Hi, Dr. Ross. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Pepper said, moving towards Betty. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you since my sister said you were coming to New York.”

“Your sister?” Betty asked.

“Carolyn,” Natasha said from the couch. “Formerly Potts, now Coulson.”

“Oh,” Betty said. “I like her. She wasn’t what I thought a shadow government employee would be like.” She glanced over at the couch. “Sorry?”

“Nah, Tash’s pretty much what you’d expect,” Clint said.

“He, however, crawls through the vents and ducts and ceilings with NERF weapons sometimes,” Natasha said.

“Hey, that’s totally sanctioned by Fury. How else do you explain the weapons and extra darts that keep showing up in my office?” Clint asked.

“You have an office?” Tony asked from the doorway to the bedroom. “And you use NERF weapons at work?”

“Please do not give him any ideas,” Natasha said. “And you know Phil supplies some of those, right?”

“What are you watching now?” Tony asked, staring at the TV in confusion.

“You know, if we’re gonna be a team of Avengers, then we’re gonna have to fix your child hood deficiencies,” Clint said. “Boarding school and MIT did you wrong, man.”

“Are we a team though?” Bruce asked.

Tony shrugged. “Worked pretty well today. Sure, we’ve got issues, but so does the Justice League.”

“You know comics, but you don’t know what Pokémon is?” Clint asked.

“Moving on,” Pepper said. “How long do you think it will be until the others come back?”

“Steve probably won’t come back until he’s exhausted,” Betty said. “I have Jan’s phone number so I can call them, but I have no idea about Thor.”

“Well, we’ll just have to make sure there’s food waiting for them when they do end up getting here,” Pepper said.

“Dr. Foster and her assistant are getting here tomorrow,” Natasha said. “Fantastics are getting in sometime in the morning, though they’re going to the Baxter rather than here.”

“Should we get the dead Chitauri off of their roof?” Bruce asked.

“Nah,” Clint said. “Reed deserves a surprise.”


	16. June 14 - Damage Recap

Tony was up and out in the kitchen the next morning by the time Pepper made her way there, groggy and still wishing to be asleep. Tony was trying to be quiet in the kitchen, and was succeeding pretty well at it. While Tony failed to use the kitchen for anything beyond smoothie manufacturing and bits and bobs, he was actually fairly good at making eggs.

“Morning,” he murmured.

“Did you get any sleep?” she asked, pressing a kiss to his forehead on the way to the coffee pot.

“Some,” he shrugged.

“You know who’s still here?” she asked as she prepared her coffee.

“Loki never showed up again after he left yesterday. Cap left early this morning. Other than that, everyone’s here.”

Pepper stabbed a fork in the scrambled eggs still in the pan and promptly burned her tongue as she scooped them into her mouth. The coffee chaser did little to help as she wandered over to the living area of the open floor plan.

She peeked over the back of the sofa and found her sister lying with her head towards where the two arms of the sofa met, seemingly asleep. Agent Barton was seated on the floor in between the two arms, also seemingly asleep sitting upright. Pepper highly doubted either of them were asleep given the last few days and the sheer amount of sunlight pouring in through the two walls of windows. Curtains across the dining section were good and all, but they weren’t blackout curtains and they certainly didn’t diminish the sun pouring in from the kitchen’s wall of windows. Barton was also going to have a hell of a time getting up with those ribs. Pepper wasn’t even sure how he’d gotten down there.

“You’d better caffeinate me now,” Carolyn said, proving her point. She rolled onto her back and looked up at Pepper pleadingly.

“How much sleep did you get?” Pepper asked, handing over her cup as Carolyn pushed up to a sitting position.

Carolyn made a face as she took a gulp of the coffee due to the lack of creamer in the coffee but swallowed it down none the less. “I didn’t sleep. My blood is coffee sludge. I don’t have time to sleep much now given all the recovery work that needs to be done.”

“She got the President to declare a State of Emergency at, like, 2 AM,” Clint said from his spot on the floor. “The Red Cross should be arriving en masse soon too.”

“Why didn’t Ellis declare a state of emergency yesterday?” Tony asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve been busy,” Carolyn said. “Phil’s been working from his hospital bed despite the doctors telling him not to. God knows what Maria’s doing, but it can’t be pleasant. And then Fury has to deal with the World Security Council.”

“What’s the World Security Council?” Tony asked from the kitchen.

“A bunch of assholes,” Carolyn said. “Though you get to ask Fury about exactly what they are. You’re not really supposed to know who they are. For real not supposed to know. Not the ‘not supposed to know but I know you’re going to tell your sister anyways’ kind of not know.” She handed the mug back to Pepper and stretched. “You want any coffee, Clint?”

“Not right now,” he said.

“Mmkay,” Carolyn said. After she got up she tucked the blanket around Clint and patted his head. “Got word that the X-People landed about an hour and a half ago. They’re gonna get settled and then call,” she said as she headed directly for the coffee pot. “Fantastics are landing in about forty minutes but they need to get settled too. And Steve went to go help with the relief efforts.”

“What’s he going to do?” Tony asked.

“I don’t know, be the charming gentleman he is while he hauls rocks and debris to clean up the streets?” Pepper suggested. “What did he do yesterday?”

“Pretty much that,” Jan said as she walked out into the living area. “Is there coffee and when’s Dr. Foster getting here?”

“An hour,” Carolyn said. “I’ve gotta bounce before that, but they’re being brought directly here by SHIELD personnel. I cannot condone any future cleanup efforts, but the X-Men are going to head down here to help out after they touch down.”

“I wanna meet Dr. Foster,” Tony said.

“No,” Pepper responded without missing a beat or looking at Tony.

Jan looked at the two of them suspiciously.

“Anyways, I have a call with the Board of Directors at 10 AM that I have to take,” Pepper said.

“Should I,” Tony started, but Pepper cut him off.

“You are not participating in that call. I am the CEO and you’re at present the problem here,” Pepper said. Tony frowned, but she patted him on the shoulder. “You’re not the problem, Fury is, and I’ll make sure to let the Board know that you were fixing the problem.”

“The Board loves me,” Tony said.

“The Board loves you more now that you aren’t the CEO,” Pepper said.

 

At precisely 8:45 AM the TV stopped playing whatever it was that Clint was watching and Jarvis announced, “Mr. Stark, the Fantastic Four are calling.”

“Answer,” Tony said from the kitchen.

“There is a Chitauri on my roof,” Reed said, glowering at them all.

“Nice to see you too,” Tony said, moving towards the couches where most of the others were sitting. Hank, who’d been sitting at the table moved towards the couches too. Pepper was in the bedroom preparing for the call with the Board.

“Hank, nice to see you survived dealing with Stark,” Reed said. Sue, who was standing next to him, jabbed an elbow sharply into his side.

“Fury told us not to go out and help,” Clint said. “SCUDS should’ve picked it up though.”

“Hey! Frankie!” Johnny shouted from elsewhere in the Baxter’s penthouse. “This is technically still our honeymoon!”

“What can we do to help out?” Sue asked.

“It’s mostly just cleaning,” Jan said. “Well, there’s the portal opener thing on Stark Tower.”

“I’d like to wait until Dr. Foster gets here,” Hank said. “Unless Fury’s started on it, that is. Then we can definitely go now.”

“I doubt he’s started,” Natasha said. “His expert’s currently in Medical and won’t be released until they do at least three full psych evals to decide the extent of the brainwashing.”

Clint frowned and started to ask, “How many,” before Natasha leveled a glare at him. “I was just gonna ask how many of the other SHIELD employees have been found.”

“Then when Dr. Foster arrives why doesn’t everyone with a PhD head to the Tower?” Tony asked.

“That would exclude you,” Rhodey pointed out.

“It’s my tower so I’m going regardless of anything,” Tony said.

“Maybe you don’t go immediately,” Jan said. “I’m sure she wants to see Thor for a bit first.”

Thor nodded. “I would like to ensure for myself that she is safe,” he said.

“Oh, this is Thor, by the way,” Clint said to Reed and Sue. “Like the actual Thor from mythology. Dr. Bruce Banner, Dr. Betty Ross,” he continued, pointing to each of them in turn.

“Hi,” Betty said, waving slightly at the screen.

“Frankie! Someone talk some sense into my wife!”

“The X-Men called earlier before Carolyn left,” Natasha said. “They’re going to be in town soon to help cleanup. Fury really doesn’t want any visibility on the Avengers, so help from us will have to come out of uniform. Captain America’s already out there.”

Sue nodded. “Understandable. Though could someone please get the thing off of our roof?”

“Tell Frankie to take care of it,” Clint said. “She’s the one that works for SHIELD too.”

“That is a valid point,” Reed said slowly. “Frankie,” he called and headed out of frame.

“Are you alright? Do you need anything?” Sue asked.

“We’ve got food, but we’ll run out eventually. I’m assuming there’s gonna be a food shortage for a while,” Tony said.

“And we were supposed to be on vacation for two weeks. Why do you think we have any food?” Sue asked.

“Mr. Stark,” Jarvis said. “Dr. Foster and Miss Lewis have arrived. Shall I let them in?”

“Yes,” Tony said as Thor got up from the couch and headed for the door. He disappeared into the enclosed foyer.

Less than 30 seconds later Darcy Lewis hurried out of the entry, saying, “Seriously?” as she looked behind her. She looked to her right where the accumulated Avengers were and stopped short. “Oh, hey. They’re making out. She hit him first, though.” She peered at them all before zeroing in on Betty. “It’s you. Coulson was talking to you at gradation last month.”

“You went to Culver?” Betty asked.

“Poli sci major,” Darcy said.

Tony looked confused. “And how exactly did you become an intern for a theoretical physicist?”  

“She was the only applicant,” Jane said as she and Thor came out of the entryway. Thor had his arm around her shoulders. “Hi,” she said to the room at large.

“It’s wonderful to meet you,” Hank said, moving towards them. He reached out to shake Jane’s hand when he got close enough.

She shook his hand, somewhat wide eyed. “Uh, Thor said something about the device that opened the portal.”

“Where’s Erik?” Darcy asked.

“He’s in SHIELD Medical,” Natasha said.

“Is that code for he’s being locked up forever?” Darcy asked. “Because Jane’s already tried to break into a SHIELD facility once.”

“I mean, technically Thor broke into it,” Clint said. “We didn’t even know she was there until after the fact.”

“Is Erik alright?” Jane asked. “Can I see him?”

“He’s in SHIELD Medical,” Natasha repeated. “I’ll look into the visitation part. He may not be up to it for a few days. They need to run some tests.”

“Thank you,” Jane said. “Now, about the device.”

“Coffee first, shop talk later,” Darcy said. “You haven’t slept, like, at all since we got the call to go to Tromso. And I hate planes so I haven’t slept. Though, first class was a nice change for once.”

“Coffee’s in the kitchen,” Jan said, standing up from the couch. “There’s also food.” Darcy followed her back to the kitchen.

“You do realize,” a voice said from the dining area, “that Fury is interrogating Amora and Skurge as we speak.”

“You were not there a second ago,” Sue said, staring at Loki.

He pushed off from the table as Thor said, “My brother is one of the most skilled magic wielders on Asgard. He learned directly from my mother.”

“I still don’t think it’s magic,” Tony muttered.

“It’s highly advanced science we’re only starting to understand,” Jane said. “Asgardian society has been around for a lot longer than ours has.”

“Hence, magic,” Darcy said from the kitchen. “And he didn’t give birth to a horse. I checked.”

More than a few people glanced at Loki and Jane sighed. “Why would he have given birth to a horse?” Bruce asked.

“Your eddas and sagas of us were written quite some time after our final visit to this realm,” Thor said. “There are many inaccurate elements. Sleipneir is merely one of them.”

“Thor’s not married to Sif, either,” Darcy pointed out, bringing her own mug and one for Jane over.

“We already figured that one out,” Tony said

Darcy shrugged. “Are Sif or the Warrior Bros coming down to help you haul Amora and Skurge back to Asgard?” she asked Thor.

Thor shook his head and looked towards Loki. “Will you return to Asgard with me, brother?”

“No.”

“Mother misses you,” Thor said.

“That’s a low blow, man,” Clint said. “Bringing up the mom card.”

“Mr. Stark,” Jarvis interrupted. “Miss Potts requires your assistance in preparing for the meeting with the Board of Directors.”

“Sure,” Tony said. “Don’t leave for my Tower without me,” he added as he headed back towards the bedroom.

As soon as he was firmly gone, Jan asked, “How bad is it out near you guys? And Grand Central?”

“Grand Central’s structurally fine. It’s just got some decorative issues right now,” Darcy said before Sue could respond. “Power’s still out that way though.”

“The building has generators,” Sue said. “Reed’s blown the circuit breaker more than once.”

“Bryant Park and the New York Public Library are kind of trashed – the park more than the library – because _someone_ ,” Darcy said, pointedly looking at Thor, “crashed a giant monster into it.”

Thor frowned. “I crashed a number of Leviathans into a number of places.”

“The Hulk punched you right afterwards,” Darcy elaborated.

“Oh,” Thor said, nodding and smiling. “That building is a library?”

“How do you know all of this?” Jan asked Darcy.

“Cell phone towers aren’t completely down. Neither’s wifi in a lot of places,” Darcy shrugged. “You guys hit the internet, like, ten seconds after Amora started threatening people in Germany. There’s already a ton of conspiracy theories about Captain America.”

Natasha and Clint exchanged a glance. “What kind of theories exactly?” Natasha asked.

Darcy shrugged again. “I mean, most people seem to think it’s US propaganda. Sort of like how he initially was. There’re only a few people who think it’s the original Captain America.”

“Uh, how much is online?” Bruce asked.

 

By the time all the PhD’s (and Tony) returned from dismantling the CMS device on top of Stark Tower Jarvis had compiled quite a bit of footage and commentary on the Avengers from the internet. Quite a bit was terrifying, seeing the parts of battle they hadn’t seen while they were fighting. The comments were a mix of positive and negative with some downright insane or downright angry thrown in the mix.

Pepper had yet to emerge from the bedroom where she’d been having the video conference with the Board of Directors. It probably wasn’t a good sign considering it had been hours since the call was set to start.

Darcy felt kind of awkward with the whole thing though, considering she really only knew Jane and Thor. Sure, archery guy was hot, but that didn’t mean she actually knew Agent Barton. Thor had hung back with her thankfully and sat down next to her on the couch once she brought her laptop out. Their tech was way behind Asgard’s, but there were elements that he didn’t quite get yet.

Facebook was one of those things.

While Jarvis pulled up new clip after new clip and post after post and tweet after tweet, Darcy scrolled through Tumblr and Twitter on her own. She’d seen most of the video clips before the plane ride seeing as they’d left after the fight concluded long before the flight was even booked. Some of the videos were new, given that they were from people elsewhere in the world or about the aftermath of the fight and what was still happening in Manhattan and surrounding areas of New York.

Eventually, though, the science people returned, though there seemed to be more people returning than left. Jane made a beeline for the couch and collapsed into it next to Thor.

“Where’s Pepper?” Tony asked.

“She’s still back there,” Natasha said. She’d migrated to the dining table at some point. “Hasn’t come out yet.”

Tony frowned and headed towards the bedroom. “Jarvis, is she still on with the Board?”

“No,” was all the AI said.

“What is that?” Bruce asked, staring at the shaky camera footage of New York on the TV.

“YouTube,” Clint said. “There is an astonishing amount of cell phone and camera footage of us.”

“I’m sure Fury’s having a stroke,” Natasha said.

“I think _I’m_ having a stroke,” a new voice said.

Darcy looked up from her laptop and did a double take. “Holy shit. It is you. I mean, Thor said it was you, but it’s actually you.”

“Uh, what?” Steve Rogers asked.

Clint frowned. “You recognize him out of uniform?”

“Well, yeah. My grandmother instilled a fine appreciation for Captain America and the Howling Commandoes. She was a nurse and met you guys once,” Darcy said. “Man, you’re gonna get bombarded with requests from colleges and universities.”

“Why?” Steve asked.

“Primary evidence into World War II, Hydra, and the front lines. A lot of the stuff you guys did is declassified now, but there are so few first-hand accounts rather than the second hand stuff from the government,” Darcy said.

“I thought you were a political science major,” Jan said.

“I am, history’s my minor,” Darcy shrugged. “And my granddad was in the Pacific theater rather than the European theater, so I grew up on stories. You guys were viewed a little different in the Pacific theater considering you weren’t stationed out there” She looked back at Steve. “You need to get a publicist, agent, manager, or something. Because with that footage of you guys out there, people have already started the conspiracy theories about you.”

Steve looked thoroughly baffled. “You know, Coulson’s a history major,” Clint said. “He wrote his undergraduate thesis on you.”

“Was going to write his master’s thesis on you too,” Natasha said with a grin.

“Y’all are making him afraid of my husband.” Darcy had no idea who the woman standing just outside the foyer was. “But yes, that’s why Phil’s… odd about you.”

“How is he, by the way?” Steve asked.

“Bitching,” the woman said. “Dr. Foster, Miss Lewis, I’m Carolyn Potts-Coulson.”

“I thought you didn’t change your name,” a weary sounding Pepper Potts asked.

“No, I did, it’s just that having two Agent Coulsons at SHIELD is confusing so sometimes I hyphenate, sometimes I’m just Agent Potts,” Carolyn said.

“How’d the meeting with the Board go?” Rhodey asked.

The look on Pepper’s face explained exactly how well the meeting hadn’t gone. “This is as much fun as when Tony said he didn’t want to make weapons anymore.”

“Damn,” Rhodey said.

“You want me to delete their bank accounts?” Carolyn asked.

“Can you… do that?” Jane asked.

“Frankly, yes she can,” Pepper said. “And no, it’s not necessary.”

“Anyways,” Carolyn said. “Thor, you should take custody of Amora and Skurge and take them to Asgard before Fury’s supervisors get hold of them.”

“Fury has supervisors?” Tony asked.

“You think Fury sent the nuke out there?” Carolyn asked.

“There was a nuke?” Jane asked, her voice sounding slightly strangled.

“The Council is made up of a bunch of assholes,” Clint said. “I would highly suggest that Thor take Amora and Skurge to Asgard as soon as possible.”

“Will Fury allow that?” Thor asked.

“Definitely. I’m sure he wants them out of his hands for the same reason,” Clint said.

“You should also take the Tesseract,” Carolyn said. Both Clint and Natasha looked at her. “What? He should take it.”

“I already have it,” Loki said.

“Can you stop doing the appearing and disappearing thing?” Tony asked. “And what do you mean you have the Tesseract?”

“I secured it,” Loki said, shrugging idly. “Fury has yet to realize it’s missing, of course. Thor can return it to Asgard when he takes Amora and Skurge.”

“You stole the Tesseract,” Natasha said flatly.

“I can put it back if it would make you feel better so long as Fury does allow it to be returned to Asgard,” Loki said.

“Just take the damn thing back to Asgard tomorrow,” Carolyn said. 


	17. Epilogue: June 15

There had been some token protests from SHIELD about everyone coming to see Thor off with his captives and the Tesseract. Tony and Thor were highly recognizable and would put the rest of the group under scrutiny. Clint and Natasha hadn’t exactly been incognito during the battle, but they would prefer to keep their identities under wraps seeing as they were intelligence field operatives. Jan argued that since there was going to be a SHIELD perimeter, the public wasn’t going to be able to see them anyways. So eventually everyone in the penthouse but Pepper trooped out to watch Thor leave. Bruce had quietly informed the team that he was leaving town right after Thor. Betty hadn’t seemed particularly pleased with that information, but she did seem fairly resigned about it.

They arrived at the departure site before SHIELD had actually brought Amora and Skurge. Jane and Thor stepped aside presumably to have their last goodbyes before he left. Tony looked at his watch before scanning the direction of the road.

“You’re not going to cut off contact with me again, are you?” Betty asked Bruce.

He sheepishly looked at the ground. “I’ll write. But I don’t – your dad’s going to want to find me again.”

“Oh, I can deal with that,” Tony said. “Thunderbolt hates me.”

“ _We_ can deal with General Ross,” Phil said. “We’re already in the process of dealing with him and shifting his directions of interest.”

“Are you going to try and haul him in?” Betty asked Phil.

“I don’t believe that will be necessary,” Phil said.

The sound of a truck pulling up drew everyone’s attention. “Ah. There it is,” Tony said.

“That’s yours?” Steve asked.

“No, it’s yours. And there’s something for Bruce,” Tony said.

“You got me a trailer truck,” Steve said as Tony headed to the back of the truck.

“No,” Tony said. “I didn’t get you anything. This was already yours.” He opened the doors to the trailer and did his best Vanna White impression.

“Is that…” Steve started, moving towards the item inside. “Is that my bike?”

“Dad kept it,” Tony said. “Called the storage place to have it brought across the country. _And_ I had the driver stop by the offices this morning to pick up this.” He stepped up the ramp and pulled a small box out of the saddlebag on the motorcycle. “It’s all yours,” he told Steve as he stepped down.

Steve smiled, moving up the ramp and into the trailer to look over the motorcycle.

“I was under the impression you couldn’t drive for shit,” Darcy said.

“What?” Tony asked, looking surprised.

“Grams said you couldn’t drive for shit. That the Howling Comandoes kept ribbing you about it the week you were with her unit,” Darcy said. “And that you managed to crash two Jeeps and a bike in that time frame.”

Steve looked a little sheepish. “There might have been assumptions that I knew how to drive when I never actually learned.”

“We’re going to have to work on that,” Phil said from behind the group. When they turned to look at him he got a good look at the bike in the trailer. “Is that your bike?” he asked. “Where was it?”

“Dad had it,” Tony said. “Just one of the many relics from the past he held onto rather than try to live in the present.”

“They did. And Captain, you do have a motorcycle license. But given the new information that you don’t actually know how to drive, please don’t.”

Tony shrugged. “It’s all yours,” he told Steve, walking back down the ramp. “And this,” he said, handing the box to Bruce, “is all yours.”

Bruce took the box and pulled the lid off. He looked up at Tony from the contents. “It’s a phone.”

“No, it’s a Stark phone. Which is in beta testing at the moment so there are very few people in the world with one,” Tony said. “This one’s specifically designed to scramble the GPS signal when calling unless you specify it not to. So you can feel free to call anyone you want to, whenever you want to. You can call us if you need help. Or if we need your help.”

“So now you don’t have any excuse not to call me,” Betty said. “Even if dad does try to tap my phone lines.”

“Your dad sounds like a jackass,” Darcy said.

“There’s also a button for that,” Tony said.

“You’re going to market a phone that scrambles a GPS signal and can block tapped phone lines?” Natasha asked.

“No, this is the fancy version. Pepper and I are the only other people that have this version,” Tony said. “The normal version will hit shelves sometime late this year or early next year.”

Phil sighed and glanced down at his own phone. “Thor, Amora and Skurge have arrived.”

When the two were brought to them, Skurge surprisingly just looked annoyed with the course of events. Amora was trying valiantly to seemed only annoyed, but her gaze darted from person to person. Thor looked towards them and back at Jane. He took her hands in his own and said earnestly, “I will return as soon as I am able. Heimdall will have kept my father apprised of the events of these past few days.”

Jane nodded. “Just make sure they can’t come back. And that the Tesseract is properly contained.”

Thor kissed Jane one last time before moving towards Amora and Skurge. Darcy rolled her eyes behind Thor’s back, but Jane caught the gesture. “Really?”

“You guys are gross,” Darcy shrugged. “You’re _always_ kissing.”

“I think it’s sweet,” Betty said. She was holding the new Stark phone and seemed to be plugging every phone number she had into it. When she looked up and smiled at Jane, Jane noticed that the gold chain that had been around her neck was missing. There did seem to be a chain peeking out of Bruce’s collar.

“You should get going before the news vans get here,” Phil told Thor. “The perimeter will help keep them away, but it would be best if the Bifrost appeared and this gathering broke up before they arrived.”

Thor nodded sharply and everyone backed away from Amora and Skurge. He looked to the sky and called out, “Heimdall, send the Bifrost!” He sent one last look towards Jane before the blue light of the Bifrost absorbed the three aliens.

The Bifrost dissipated, leaving the markings on the ground behind. The group just stared at them for a minute before Rhodey said, “That was – does it do that every time?”

“Pretty much,” Darcy said. “Jane’s tried explaining what the markings mean but I just zone out every time. You think he’ll bring Sif and the Warriors when he comes back? Sif’ll be pissed she missed her boyfriend.”

“Fiancé apparently,” Tony said. “Loki dropped that bomb when he was dealing with Amora. The cameras in the Tower caught it.”

“Does that mean we get to plan a bachelorette party for her?” Darcy asked Jane.

Phil cleared his throat and said, “We really should be going. That will have drawn attention.” Steve nodded and headed towards his motorcycle. “Ah, please – just don’t hit anything.”

Steve smiled sheepishly and nodded. “I’m not that bad anymore. But Bucky and I were broke kids from Brooklyn. Why on Earth would we have needed to know how to drive?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And...it's done.


End file.
